A migrant drug dealer reportedly avoided deportation from Britain after arguing that his removal would cause mental health issues for his mother.
UK Home Office efforts to remove convicted Portuguese robber and drug dealer Fabio Indiai from the country were stymied after the migrant’s lawyers convinced a judge that being deported would breach his rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Daily Mail reported.
A judge found that the provision, which guarantees the “right to respect for private and family life”, would have been breached by removing Indiai because it would negatively impact the mental health of his mother, to whom Indiai allegedly provides day-to-day support.
The Portuguese migrant was previously imprisoned in 2021 for intent to supply Class-A drugs after being arrested with over £1,000 of cocaine, ketamine, and MDMA.
Additionally, Indiai had also served 18 months in a youth prison for robbery in 2012. While the Home Office did not seek to deport him after the initial offence, the government department did seek to remove him from the country following the end of his sentence for drug dealing.
Commenting on the decision to allow him to remain in the country, Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said: “You can’t make it up. And you can’t defend it. We must leave the ECHR.”
Although the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, its membership in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its associated court in France was unaffected as it is technically a separate body from the EU, despite being so closely aligned as to share the same campus in Strasbourg, the same flag, and the same anthem.
The continued jurisdiction of the ECHR over British immigration policy has had significant consequences, including the derailment of the former Conservative government’s plan to send illegal boat migrants to asylum processing centres in Rwanda rather than allowing them to remain in the UK while their claims are processed, a process which often takes years.
Whether or not the country should withdraw from the ECHR has been a chief dividing line within the Tory leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak at the helm of the Conservatives. Nigerian heritage former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has so far rejected the idea of leaving the institution, arguing that it would do little to help the UK’s immigration crisis.
On the other hand, former immigration minister Jenrick has made leaving the ECHR the central thrust of his campaign. However, critics such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and others have questioned Jenrick’s tack to the right on the issue, suggesting that the Tory MP was merely attempting to imitate him and his policies to fend off a challenge from Reform.