Thousands of foreign offenders are being housed in British jails or even walking the streets despite the government pledging to deport them. A report by the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee found that there are now more than 13,000 foreign criminals in the UK, with nearly 6,000 free to walk the streets having served their sentences while they await deportation. The Times reports that more than 1,700 have been out of prison for more than five years yet have still not been removed from the country. Thousands are from countries within the European Union (EU), even though Britain has a deal allowing them to be sent home to serve their sentences. The report estimates that the cost of holding foreign prisoners in the UK is £350 million a year. “The clear inefficiencies demonstrated by this process will lead the public to question the point the UK remaining a member of the EU,” the report says. Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the committee that wrote the report, said: “There are still over 13,000 foreign national offenders in the country, who could fill towns the size of Louth in Lincolnshire, Beccles in Suffolk or Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, and almost