AN Iraqi drug dealer has escaped deportation after immigration judges accepted that he was too “Westernised” to go back following 24 years in Britain.
The man — locked up for five years and four months in 2015 for selling cocaine — claimed that he would be “viewed with suspicion” and “face persecution” in his homeland.
A previous asylum application was thrown out and then Home Secretary Theresa May tried to kick him out
Officials signed a deportation order in 2018, against which he appealed and lost.
He then applied for a European Economic Area residence card in a further bid to remain because his partner, with whom he had a daughter in 2014, was Hungarian.
He was turned down again and has fought a legal battle to remain since.
The man, who has anonymity, applied under the European Convention of Human Rights claiming he would be targeted if sent back to Iraq owing to his new “social and cultural attitudes”.
The Immigration and Asylum Chamber at the Upper Tribunal in London also ruled the man was no longer a danger to the community.
Judge Landes said a new hearing must take place to determine whether the Iraqi is entitled to asylum status or ‘humanitarian protection’ under UK law.
Both forms of protection are similar and offer permission to stay in the UK, however asylum seekers who do not meet the criteria for refugee status can be considered for humanitarian protection.
Judge Landes said: “If the Iraqi is not a refugee then he would qualify for humanitarian protection”.
The judge also found that he successfully ‘rebutted the presumption that he constitutes a danger to the community’.
A new hearing will take place in the future.
An Iraqi drug dealer has escaped deportation after immigration judges accepted that he was too ‘Westernised’ to go back following 24 years in Britain[/caption]
