Non-White immigrants heavily over-represented in sex crimes in Britain

Immigrants from non-White countries and regions are far more likely to commit sex crimes than British citizens, data shows.

An analysis by pro-immigration media outlet The Economist found that even when standardising data by age and sex to reduce disparities, Afghans were still convicted of sex crimes at seven times the rate of the British population between 2020 and 2022.

Immigrants from the Middle East and north Africa committed sex crimes at almost four times the rate, Sub-Saharan Africans were 2.5 times more likely to commit sex offences than British citizens, and South Asians were 1.5 times more likely.

Ben Brindle from Oxford-based think tank the Migration Observatory, which obtained the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures used in the analysis, said the over-representation could be due to immigrants having witnesses violence in their home countries, or being from poor backgrounds.

“Just as large differences in conviction rates exist among British citizens, they will be present across different nationalities, too,” he said.

The Economist noted that immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia were also over-represented among suspected and offenders, “especially for sex crimes”, in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden.

The analysis was carried out due to rising concerns about immigrant sex crimes in the wake of the horrific gang rape of a teenage girl in Bristol last year by four Afghans.

Sex crimes by illegal immigrants have become so common that the Home Office in August released a new “guidance” booklet telling them that rape and sexual harassment is unlawful in the UK.

“If you have sex with someone who does not want to, this is called rape. Rape is a serious crime,” the nine-page document says.

MoJ data obtained last year by another think tank, the Centre for Migration Control, found that sex crimes committed by immigrants increased 62% between 2021 and 2024.

Of the sexual offence convictions where a foreign nationality was recorded, the highest number were committed by Indians, followed by Romanians, Poles, Pakistanis, Afghans, Nigerians, Sudanese, Bangladeshis, Portuguese and Iranians.