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.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Kebatu will be deported "imminently" and suggested it would happen within a few days.

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's release has led to renewed focus on the state of HM Prison Service, which the government has described as "broken".

The number of prisoners who have been released mistakenly has risen sharply, with 262 let out in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 over the same period a year earlier.

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.

Sir Keir's spokesperson told reporters that prison release errors are "never acceptable" and blamed "chronic underinvestment" in the justice system by the previous Conservative government.

On Monday, Housing Secretary Steve Reed said Kebatu's release had been "catastrophic" and said prison staff would need to carry out the extra checks regardless of workload concerns.

He told GB News: "When the justice secretary stands up in the Commons and tells them they will carry out these checks to stop accidental releases, they will follow his orders.

"We will not tolerate this as a government or as a country, seeing convicted criminals set loose by accident. Absolutely unacceptable."

On Sunday, Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of north London at 08:30, 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.

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".

On Sunday, Lammy said Kebatu would be deported this week.

Also 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".