An Albanian criminal who came to the UK illegally has avoided being deported because his son who he sees once a week could have a learning disability. Blendi Axhami’s child was born in the UK in 2017 and the youngster is mainly cared for by his mother. But lawyers acting for Axhami have successfully fought off a Home Office bid to deport the boy’s father.
Mail Online reports Axhami, who it emerged had been sentenced to eight years in his native Albania for an undisclosed crime, applied for permission to stay in Britain after his son was born. But background checks found Axhami had been arrested twice since 2021, once for possession of Class A drugs, and his application for “leave to remain” in the UK was turned down by the Home Office in 2022.
But now after launching an appeal, Lower Tribunal judge Angharad Lloyd-Lawrie has ruled that Axhami’s son “would face considerable distress” should his father leave the UK.
GB News reports Axhami’s child, who lives with his mother, is being treated “as if he is autistic” while still awaiting a final diagnosis, the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber heard.
The Home Office then launched an appeal against the ruling but the case was dismissed earlier this year in January.
A Home Office spokesperson confirmed that the department “fought this case right the way through the tribunal system”, adding: “Foreign nationals who commit heinous crimes should be in no doubt that we will do everything to make sure they are not free on Britain’s streets.”
The use of human rights defences in immigration proceedings has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as some politicians argue the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
In another bizarre case involving an Albanian criminal, Kelvis Disha, 39, was able to argue that he should not be deported because his son did not like foreign chicken nuggets.
An immigration tribunal ruled that it would be “unduly harsh” for C to be forced to move to Albania with his father owing to his sensitivity around food.
The sole example provided to the court was his distaste for the “type of chicken nuggets that are available abroad”.