In UK, Indians see highest increase in sex offence convictions among all foreign nationals

LONDON: Indian nationals in the UK saw the largest increase in sexual offence convictions here of all foreign nationals in the four years from 2021 to 2024, new data shows.

There was a 257% increase in convictions of Indian nationals for sexual offences in Britain over the period, followed by Nigerian nationals who saw an increase of 166% and Iraqis (160% increase). Indians were convicted of 100 sexual offences in 2024 compared to 28 in 2021.

UK’s ministry of justice (MoJ) said the data relates to sentencing occasions rather than individual offenders.

The statistics were taken from MoJ data drawn from the Police National Computer and obtained by the think tank Centre for Migration Control via a freedom of information request to the MoJ.

Indians had the third-highest increase in convictions for serious offences of all foreign nationals between 2021 and 2024 at 115%, with the second-highest being Algerian, and the highest being Egyptian. There was a total of 588 convictions of Indian nationals for serious offences in 2024 compared to 273 in 2021.

This comes as new immigration data released by the home office shows that in 2024 a total of 293 Indian nationals arrived in the UK illegally via small boat and 206 have arrived between Jan and June this year. Indians are a tiny proportion, though, as the largest cohort last year came from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.

Indians made up 15% of illegal arrivals at UK ports in the year ending June 2025 when there were 5,474 asylum applications made by Indian nationals, of which, rounded to the nearest 100, 4,000 were made by those who had come to the UK on a legal visa, mostly study visas, 400 were made by those who came on small boats, and the rest entered through other means. For asylum initial decisions for Indians, 2,691 were refused in the year ending June 2025, while 20 were granted asylum, and the rest are awaiting a decision.

Indians were the largest group to gain citizenship and received the highest number of work visas and tourist visas of any nationality in the year ending June 2025. They were the second-largest cohort to receive study visas with 98,014 visas granted to main applicants.
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