Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner said a new crackdown on foreign criminals entering Britain does not go far enough.

Tim Passmore was speaking after the Government announced it would be implementing measures to ensure immigrants from outside the European Union seeking visas to stay in this country disclose their criminal history.

However, EU nationals have the right of freedom of movement and can not be included in the new rules which come into place in September.

Suffolk has seen a string of cases involving EU citizens with criminal convictions whose record was unknown until they committed further offences in the county.

Mr Passmore said: “I welcome these additional checks of foreign nationals entering the UK.

“I hope this is the beginning of a move to a more comprehensive process to keep us safe. Borders are there for a purpose.

“My own view is that all people entering the UK should disclose what their criminal records are before gaining entry.”

Mr Passmore added the system should be in place across all EU countries meaning British criminals would also have to declare their offending history.

He said: “It should be a two-way process.”

EU nationals like Adrian Udrea, 39, who was jailed for 16 years last November for raping an 81-year-old woman after breaking into her home in the Felixstowe area, still will not have to disclose their records under the new measures. He had previously been jailed for burglary in his native Romania.

Another EU national, Polish fugitive Ireneusz Melaniuk, murdered Bury St Edmunds jeweller Peter Avis, 66, at his flat in Abbeygate Street in 2012. Melaniuk, 28, was a convicted robber and burglar in Poland and was on the run from a jail in his homeland.

Ipswich Crown Court convicted Melaniuk of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Since January 2012 at least six rapists from EU countries have appeared before Suffolk courts after their criminal past was discovered when they were arrested for other crimes.

In February this year Ipswich shoplifter Rolands Marcinkevics, 32, was deported after his criminal record for dishonesty in Latvia and Sweden was discovered. He had 14 convictions for 27 offences in the UK.

As from September people applying to come to Britain under certain visa routes will have to provide proof of criminal record checks from every country they have lived in for the last 10 years.

In March this year a scathing report warned 760 foreign criminals, including killers and rapists, were on the run in Britain, with some possibly being at large for more than five years.