Police have launched a manhunt after another foreign prisoner was mistakenly released from jail.
The 24-year-old Algerian man was accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.
It comes after migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.
A spokesperson for the Met said: âShortly after 13:00hrs on Tuesday, 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October.
âThe prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man.
âOfficers are carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody.â
According to Sky News, the prisoner was in jail for trespass with an intent to steal but has previously committed sexual offences.
It is understood he is not an asylum seeker.
Reacting to the incident Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said he was âabsolutely outragedâ and that his officials have been âworking through the night to take him back to prisonâ.
The inmateâs mistaken release last Wednesday came just days after stronger security checks were put in place in prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error following the blunder in Kebatuâs case.
The Epping migrant jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, which sparked a wave of protests, was accidentally freed from prison instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre last month.
But of the latest foreign prisoner released in error, Mr Lammy is facing questions about what he knew about the incident before refusing to answer questions on the issue at Prime Ministersâ Questions.
Shortly before the news broke, he had been asked in the House of Commons whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Kebatu.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who also serves as Justice Secretary, refused to confirm four times.
Shadow defence Secretary James Cartlidge asked: âI want to ask him a further very important question â can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?â
Mr Lammy refused to confirm â and lambasted the justice system the Government inherited from the Conservatives.
He replied: âLet me just remind him that he was a justice minister that allowed our prisons to get to this state in the first place and itâs now for us to fix the mess that weâve got into.
âItâs important that Dame Lynne Owens can now continue her work and understand what is happening. He knows that early releases begun under their watch in 2021.â
Mr Cartlidge then repeated his question. He said: âHeâs the Justice Secretary. Heâs responsible for the justice system. He needs to take responsibility.
âAnd Iâm going to repeat it once more for the avoidance of doubt, because he did not answer it twice.
âCan he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum-seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?â
Mr Lammy told him to âget a gripâ.
âIn 25 years in this House, I have not witnessed a more shameful spectacle frankly than what the party opposite left in our justice system,â he said.
âTheir criminal negligence, on his watch as a former justice minister, they left our prisons on the brink of collapse entirely, threatening to allow offenders to run wild on our streets. He knows that. Rape victims waiting years for their day in court. He knows that. Neighbourhood policing decimated, leaving our people feeling unsafe in their communities, and they havenât learned a thing.
âWe are tackling knife crime, thatâs why itâs falling, 13,000 more bobbies we are putting on the streets, kicking out 5,000 foreign criminal offenders. Iâve got to say, he should do better.â
In a point of order at the conclusion of PMQs, Mr Cartlidge said: âThe Telegraph are reporting that a police manhunt has been launched for a second asylum seeker mistakenly freed from prison.
âThe question is, can (the Speaker) advise on how I can ask the Justice Secretary whether he was aware of this when I asked him about it repeatedly in Prime Ministerâs question.â
Following PMQs, sources said Mr Lammy believed it would have been irresponsible to talk about the mistaken release of a second foreign prisoner while details were still emerging.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary found out about the error at HMP Wandsworth overnight, it is understood.
But he declined to answer repeated questions at PMQs about whether any further migrants were released mistakenly because information was still emerging about the âcomplicatedâ case involving multiple agencies, sources said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Lammy said: âVictims deserve better and the public deserve answers.
âThat is why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down on such failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens, to uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases which has persisted for too long.â
