A Turkish crime boss said to be one of Britain’s biggest drug dealers has won his human rights battle against deportation after the UN Refugee Agency intervened and judges rejected a Home Office appeal. The Telegraph has the story.
The man, who was jailed for 16 years for plotting to supply heroin across the U.K., won the right to remain in the U.K. on the basis that it would breach his human right to a family life, even though he had an extra-marital affair with a woman in Turkey whom he married to “preserve her honour”.
The 70-year-old drug dealer, who was granted anonymity, also claimed that as an Alevi Kurd he would be persecuted if he was deported to Turkey. However, the immigration tribunal was told that he had returned to his homeland eight times since he came to Britain without facing any persecution.
The man’s claim to remain in the U.K. was backed by the UN Refugee Agency, despite the Home Office saying that he was a “danger to the community” and that his continued presence in the U.K. was “not conducive to the public good” because of his criminal history.
The tribunal was told that he was believed to be the head of an organised crime gang responsible at the time for 90% of the U.K. heroin trade. He had also been charged twice with assault causing actual and grievous bodily harm after his release from his drug sentence, but he was acquitted both times.
Immigration judges backed his claim and rejected an appeal by the Home Office against him remaining in the U.K. They ruled that it would breach his right to a family life based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and that there was a risk of persecution because of his Kurdish birthright.
The tribunal was told that he was a “reformed” character, that his wife had stood by him over the affair and that his deportation would split the family as she would not be able to go to Turkey with him because of her responsibility to support her two daughters and two grandchildren in the UK.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This decision defies common sense. The man has repeatedly returned to Turkey –even getting a Turkish passport – so is clearly unconcerned about his safety there. Judgements like this raise fundamental questions about the way that the ECHR is being applied.
“Human rights shouldn’t be about protecting dangerous criminals. A fundamentally different approach is needed to ensure human rights legislation is not abused by criminals and illegal immigrants. That is not what the framers of the ECHR originally intended but judges have now stretched it far beyond its original purpose.”
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