LONDON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Hundreds of suspected war criminals have found harbor in Britain despite attempts to bring them to justice, the government reports.
Over five years, a special war crimes unit in the Border Agency has called for action against 495 people for genocide, torture and crimes against humanity, but its report to the parliamentary group on genocide shows only a fifth have been deported, refused entry or left, The Guardian reported.
The 383 suspects still at large include 105 from Iraq, 75 from Afghanistan, 73 from Sri Lanka, 39 from Rwanda, 32 from Zimbabwe and 26 from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are said to include top Saddam Hussein henchmen and ranking Afghan and Congolese officials involved in torture.
New laws providing for domestic prosecutions of suspected war criminals have not yielded a single case, and there have been no new investigations, London's Metropolitan Police say.
"The biggest problem is the lack of resources dedicated to investigating these serious cases and that we often don't know where these individuals are," said MP Michael McCann. "It means that if an arrest warrant is issued there is little likelihood it can be served."
