- Home Office report into deportation scheme revealed number of failed attempts
- Just 12 foreign terrorists sent home as others argued they would be mistreated
- Among those to have avoided deportation is a convicted al-Qaeda supporter
Over 40 foreign-born terrorists have avoided deportation from the UK after using human rights law to argue they would be mistreated if returned to their home countries.
A Home Office report into the government's Deportation with Assurances (DWA) scheme - which was agreed in 2005 with Ethiopia, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Morocco - revealed the figure.
Pictured: Baghdad Meziane, a convicted al-Qaeda backer who avoided being sent to Algeria
Just 12 foreign terrorists have been successfully deported through DWA.
Among those to have made successful appeals are the likes of Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, who was released six years ago after serving time for assisting the perpetrators of a failed bomb attack in London on July 21, 2005.
An attempt was made to deport him to his home nation of Eritrea but it failed because he was deemed to be at risk of 'inhumane treatment or punishment', The Telegraph reported.
Other examples include Baghdad Meziane, a convicted al-Qaeda backer, who avoided being sent to Algeria, and Ismail Abdurahman, who helped one of the would-be July 21 bombers hide for three days but couldn't be returned to Somalia because of fears over how he would be treated.
Another is Fowzi Nejad, 61, a terrorist jailed for his part in the 1980s Iranian Embassy siege.
He was the only terrorist to survive the siege but cannot be sent back to Iran because of human rights laws - so instead lives in Peckham in London.
But DWA did lead to the deportation of the cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan in 2013.
It is understood that Abu Qatada (pictured in Jordan) was the last person to be sent home under the Deportation with Assurances agreement
It is thought he was the last foreign terror suspect to be sent home under the agreement.
The Home Office report that reveals the challenges facing the government as it tries to deport terrorists was originally ordered by Theresa May when she was home secretary.
It was completed in February.
A co-writer of the report, international law expert Professor Clive Walker, said the figure of 40 convicted terrorists who have dodged deportation is 'much larger than was previously thought'.
A co-writer of the report, international law expert Professor Clive Walker, said the figure of 40 convicted terrorists who have dodged deportation is 'much larger than was previously thought'.
Pictured Ismail Abdurahman, who helped one of the would-be July 21 bombers hide for three days but couldn't be returned to Somalia because of fear over his treatment.
Right: Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, who also assisted the July 21 perpetrators but could not be deported to Eritrea
But he added: 'I still think the Home Office wish to pursue DWA.'
The news comes as Britain was devastated by three Islamist terror attacks in as many months - with two of the attackers in the London Bridge and Borough Market outrage born abroad.
Terrorism legislation reviewer Lord Carlile of Berriew said the time has come for change.
'The attacks in recent months demonstrates the need to protect the public and that this should outweigh the human rights of terrorists,' he said.
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