InFacts Reports "Brexit won’t protect UK from Vote Leave’s EU criminals"

The UK controls its own borders

In an article published this week InFacts explains why leaving the EU will not protect the UK and would actually make the security situation worse.

Despite the claims of Vote Leave the UK has the legal right to refuse admission to any EU citizen on the grounds of "public policy, public health or public security". Those who "commit serious or persistent crimes" and are seen as a "genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat" can be refused entry to the UK. A Freedom of Information request revealed that in 2009 alone 480 EU citizens were denied entry to the UK.

While exiting the EU won't give the UK extra control over its borders it will put at risk our membership of ECRIS, a database to exchange criminal records information across the EU and the Schengen Information System, a sophisticated alerts system for wanted and missing persons.

Finally, in its own "Project Fear", Vote Leave lists a rogues' gallery of 50 criminals it claims came from the EU and implies more are just waiting to come here. A simple assessment of the risk is to compare the proportion of EU nationals in the UK prison population with British nationals. It's exactly the same at 5% demonstrating that other EU nationals are no more likely to be criminals than British citizens.