The accidental release of Hadush Kebatu is not representative of a single error, but “something more systemic” in the prison system, policing and crime commentator Danny Shaw tells Sky News.
He says: “I know how hard-pressed the staff work in the Prison Service. I’ve been to many prisons and I have huge admiration for prison officers.
“But someone here has dropped the ball and dropped the ball really badly with this mistake. It appears that other prison officers haven’t spotted it until it was too late.”
Shaw says the mistake shows that the relationship between the prison service and immigration service in the UK is “very poor”.
This, he says, goes back to at least 2007, when former home secretary Charles Clarke was sacked after a scandal where he admitted to losing track of foreign prisoners who had been released instead of deported.
“Still, we’re having the same problems,” Shaw adds.