Politics
Indians commit highest sexual offences in UK: govt report
LONDON: Indian nationals have emerged as the nationality with the largest percentage increase in convictions for sexual offences in the UK amid a wider surge in foreigners being sentenced for such crimes over the past four years in the country, according to an analysis of official British data by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC).
The think tank, citing UK Ministry of Justice figures, said convictions of Indian nationals rose by 257% between 2021 and 2024, even as overall foreign national convictions for sexual offences grew by 62% during the same period.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data has been drawn from the Police National Computer (PNC).
The CMC analysis showed that sexual offence convictions involving Indians rose from 28 cases in 2021 to 100 in 2024, an increase of 72 cases. Pakistanis are at the bottom of the nationalities for sexual convictions as Nigerians (166% increase), Iraqis (160%), Sudanese (117%) and Afghans (115%) made up the other nationalities with the steepest rises. Bangladeshis and Pakistanis featured in the data with rise of 100% and 47% respectively.
The report also highlighted that Indians ranked third in serious crime convictions, with a 115% increase between 2021 and 2024. The number of such convictions reached 588 in 2024, up from 273 in 2021. “There were almost 75,000 non-summary convictions of foreign nationals between 2021 and 2024… showing a general pattern of increase,” the CMC noted.
The findings come weeks after UK Home Office data showed a sharp rise in Indian nationals held in detention, almost doubling in the past year. Indians also emerged in the data as the second-largest group to receive study visas (98,014) and the largest for work and tourist visas to the UK. Last month, India was included in the expanded list of countries from which foreign offenders will be deported immediately after sentencing, before their appeals are heard.
The nationalities with the highest number of convictions for sexual offences last year were Indians (100), Romanians (92), Poles (83), Pakistanis (56), Afghans (43), Nigerians (40), Sudanese (37), Bangladeshi (34) and Portuguese (33).
The MoJ said the data should be treated with caution. It was possible for an offender to have multiple nationalities listed on the PNC, although they were recorded according to their “first” or “primary” nationality. One individual could also be responsible for multiple offences. Convictions by offenders where there was no declared nationality were excluded from the analysis.
Number of sexual offence convictions by foreign nationals in 2024
According to the data, the number of sex offence convictions for foreign nationals rose by 62%, from 687 in 2021 to 1,114 in 2024, compared with a 39.3% rise for British nationals, from 4,409 to 6,142.
The seven nationalities that accounted for about three quarters of the Channel crossings last year — Afghans, Syrians, Iranians, Vietnamese, Eritreans, Sudanese and Iraqis — saw a 110% increase in the number of sexual offence convictions between 2021 and 2024.
The total number of non-summary convictions of foreign nationals increased by 19.6% between 2021 and 2024, from 17,417 to 20,826. The number of convictions of British nationals increased by 5.9%, from 138,307 to 146,511. That means the number of convictions increased at three times the rate of convictions of Britons.
The nationalities with the highest number of non-summary convictions in 2024 were Romanians (3,271), Albanians (2,150), Poles (1,869), Irish (1,105), Lithuanians (737), Indians (588), Iranians (508), Bulgarians (489), Portuguese (485) and Algerians (472).
A government spokesman said: “Any foreign national who commits these kind of sexual offences in our country will face the full force of the law, and be deported at the earliest opportunity. And thanks to the reforms in our border security bill, any asylum claims they make will also be denied. This Government has already removed almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14% increase on the previous 12 months, and we will continue to crack down on any foreign nationals who come to this country and break our rules.”
Huge crowds took to the streets Saturday in all 50 US states to vent their anger over President Donald Trump’s hardline policies at “No Kings” protests that Republicans ridiculed as “Hate America” rallies.
From New York and Washington to smaller cities in Michigan and Trump’s second home in Florida, demonstrations in the eastern half of the United States revved up ahead of similar events due out west.
More than 2,700 protests are planned coast to coast, and organisers say they are expecting millions to attend.
“This is what democracy looks like!” chanted thousands at a protest in Washington near the National Mall, home to the city’s iconic landmarks.
“Hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” said protesters, many of them carrying American flags.
Demonstrators are up in arms over what they see as strongarm tactics since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January, including attacks on the media, prosecuting political opponents and a vast immigration crackdown.
A US government shutdown is now in its third week, with the Trump administration firing thousands of federal workers and lawmakers showing little sign they are ready to break the impasse.
Thousands flooded New York’s Times Square, Boston Common and Chicago’s Grant Park.
“I never thought I would live to see the death of my country as a democracy,” 69-year-old retiree Colleen Hoffman told AFP as she marched down Broadway.
“We are in a crisis— the cruelty of this regime, the authoritarianism. I just feel like I cannot sit home and do nothing.”
In New York’s Queens borough, demonstrators carried colorful signs that read “Queens Say No Kings,” and “We protest because we love America and want it back!” while some chanted, “We love our country, we can’t stand Trump!”
In Los Angeles, organizers plan to float a giant balloon of Trump in a diaper. They said they expect 100,000 people to attend.
So far, Trump’s response to Saturday’s events has been muted.
“They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
But his top surrogates were in more fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling the day of protest the “Hate America rally.”
“You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.
Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.
‘Country of equals’
Beyond the United States, the “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada, and small protests took place Saturday in Malaga, Spain and Malmo, Sweden.
On Thursday, Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.”
“We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she told reporters.
Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to send the National Guard into US cities and crack down on undocumented migrants.
Trump has ordered National Guard troops into Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon have so far been blocked in the courts.
“It is the classic authoritarian playbook: threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission,” Greenberg said.
Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged demonstrators to let their voices be heard.
“I say to my fellow Americans this No Kings Day: Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth,” he wrote Saturday on X.
“Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”
More than seventy Khwarij belonging to Gul Bahadur group, including key Khwariji leader Farman alias Al-Karamah, have been killed during effective precision strikes on terrorist hideouts of Khwariji Gul Bahadur group in the areas of Paktika.
According to credible intelligence sources, these strikes were carried out in the night of 17th of October.
According to security officials, the Khwariji Gul Bahadur group is involved in major and numerous acts of terrorism in Pakistan while infiltrating from Afghanistan.
On October 17, the same group also carried out a failed VBIED attack in Khadi area of North Waziristan, in which three women, two children and a jawan were martyred.
Moreover, other Khwariji leaders Gulab alis Deewana, Rehmani, Adil,Siddiqullah Dawar, Ghazi Maddah Khel, Muqarrab, Qismat Ullah and Fazal-ur-Rehman were also killed in the attacks.
Khwariji Fazal-ur-Rehman is the close relative of Gul Bahadur. Similarly, Khwariji Ashiq Ullah alias Kausar and Younus were also killed in these strikes.
The security officials termed the killing of important Khwarji leaders as a significant and big success
- “All aircraft are safe,” says airport official Masudul Hasan.
- Blaze disrupts both domestic and international flights.
- No immediate information on what caused blaze.
Flights out of Bangladesh’s main airport were delayed or diverted on Saturday after a major fire broke out in the cargo terminal, officials said.
Thirty-six firefighting units are working to douse the flames, Talha Bin Zasim, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, told Reuters.
Operations at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport were suspended, airport official Masudul Hasan told reporters, adding all aircraft are safe.
There was no immediate information as to what may have caused the blaze.
Both domestic and international flights were affected.
An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Dhaka was diverted to Kolkata, and an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates was sent on to Chittagong.
Meanwhile, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong was seen circling in the sky after failing to land at Dhaka airport, officials said.
The army, navy, and air force joined the fire service in efforts to bring the blaze under control.
This is the third major fire reported in Bangladesh this week. A fire on Tuesday at a garment factory in Bangladesh and an adjacent chemical warehouse killed at least 16 people and injured others. On Thursday, another fire burned down a garment factory building in an export processing zone in Chittagong.
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