A manhunt is continuing in the UK for two prisoners released by mistake.

Police are trying to track down Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth last Wednesday 29 October.

They are also searching for another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, accidentally released from the same south-west London prison on Monday.

A spokesperson for the ministry of justice said the crisis in the prison system that the UK government inherited “is such that basic information about individual cases can take unacceptably long to reach ministers”.

“On entering the House, facts were still emerging about the case and the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) had not been accurately informed of key details, including the offender’s immigration status,” the spokesperson said.

Read more: UK police arrest wrongly-released asylum seeker jailed for sexual assault

Kaddour-Cherif is serving a sentence at Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure.

He was freed from the prison, which was put into special measures last year, on 29 October, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.

It is understood the Algerian national is not an asylum seeker, but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.

Smith, who has links to the Woking area, was freed on Monday. He had been sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the same day he was accidentally freed.

A string of influential figures in the justice system have warned that the crisis in prisons has made mistaken releases more likely.

Andy Slaughter, the Labour chair of the Commons justice committee, said the events “speak to a wider justice system at breaking point”.

He added: “While the day-to-day running of prison security and public safety are paramount, the current spate of releases in error will be repeated until the underlying failures are addressed.”

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told Times Radio that austerity had an impact on the prisons system.

“Prisons are not vote winners… after 14 years of austerity and cuts, well, let’s be honest, cuts have consequences. And this is the fruition of those cuts,” he said.