British police said Wednesday they had launched a manhunt for a prisoner mistakenly released from jail, angering parliamentarians at the latest mix-up committed by the UK’s beleaguered prison system.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said in a statement it was looking for a 24-year-old Algerian man after he was released in error a week ago.
“Officers are carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody,” a spokesperson said.
Justice Minister David Lammy said he was “appalled” by the mistake.
“My officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison,” he said in a statement.
The Met spokesperson said the force was informed Tuesday that the man had been mistakenly let out of Wandsworth prison in southwest London on Wednesday, October 29.
The error deals further embarrassment to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s struggling centre-left Labour government, which polls show is currently deeply unpopular with the British public.
Just last month, Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, was mistakenly released from prison before being recaptured following a 48-hour manhunt.
The UK government then forcibly deported Kebatu, giving him £500 ($661) to leave the country, and launched an independent investigation into his accidental release.
Figures showed 262 people were mistakenly freed from prison between March 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the 21 months previously.
Kebatu’s arrest earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, triggered weeks of demonstrations targeting hotels where asylum seekers were believed to be housed.
AFP understands that the Algerian man released last Wednesday is not an asylum seeker.
Starmer, prime minister since July 2024, is coming under fire on multiple fronts over immigration as the hard-right Reform UK party led by firebrand Nigel Farage surges in popularity.
The premier’s official spokesman said the latest accidental release was “utterly unacceptable”, but suggested the previous Conservative government was partly to blame for leaving behind a “chaotic” and overcrowded prison system.
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