Prisons begin extra checks after migrant released in error

Extra checks will be carried out in prisons across England and Wales from Monday after a migrant sex offender was released in error last week.

The government has ordered governors to carry out new procedures to avoid a repeat of Hadush Kebatu's mistaken release from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, which led to a manhunt and his eventual arrest in London on Sunday.

Justice Secretary David Lammy will face questions on Monday after updating Parliament on an independent inquiry into how Kebatu was set free rather than deported.

The extra checks have been criticised by senior prison staff, who told BBC News they will increase workload and put more pressure on a system already struggling to cope.

Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of north London at 08:30 GMT on Sunday, ending a 48-hour manhunt.

He was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in July in Epping, Essex, where he had been living in an asylum hotel since arriving in the UK on a small boat.

Kebatu, whose arrest triggered protests, was due to be taken to an immigration detention centre ahead of his planned deportation when he was mistakenly told he could walk free by prison staff on Friday.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said an investigation was already under way to "make sure this doesn't happen again".

Kebatu is due to be deported later this week, Lammy has said.

A prison officer at HMP Chelmsford has been suspended from active duties but a senior prison employee told BBC News the release was "down to a series of mistakes probably because staff are overworked and in short supply".

A report from His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "something is going badly wrong" with the prison system, pointing to the rising number of mistaken releases.

Asked about the new checklist prison staff will need to follow before releasing an inmate, Mr Taylor said it had not been shared with him in full so he could not say if it was proportionate.

But he said inexperienced staff were being left with large caseloads of work due to the high "churn" of people coming through the prison system, adding the situation was made more difficult by the implementation of various early release schemes rolled out in recent years.

Asked why figures for wrongful releases were rising, Lammy said the Labour government "inherited a system that was collapsing [from the Conservatives]".

On Sunday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Prison Service was under enormous pressure, but added that "even against that backdrop it doesn't explain or excuse the release of people on our streets who have no business being there".

Former Conservative Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said an inquiry was necessary in order "to learn lessons", and suggested the incident was symptomatic of wider problems with the prison system.

He told BBC Breakfast on Sunday: "The entire annual budget of the Ministry of Justice is spent by the Department for Work and Pensions in two weeks.

"My constant plea is to try to ensure the prison service gets the resources it requires to ensure we are recruiting and retaining people with skills and experience to make sure these problems don't happen."

The Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford, Marie Goldman, said Kebatu "must now be deported" and also pushed for a national inquiry.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the incident showed that the UK's "once-trusted institutions", including the police and prisons, were "disintegrating before our eyes".