A Lithuanian burglar with a notorious record for violence has been spared deportation after successfully arguing that removal would breach his right to family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Edvardas Kekstas arrived in the UK in 2011 and was granted settled status in 2020, prior to Brexit, even though he did not speak English and required a translator to make his case from prison.
Kekstas was jailed for 11 years in March 2022 after being convicted of burglary, attempted robbery, and inflicting grievous bodily harm on his victim.
His crimes took place after the UK had left the bloc, meaning he was not protected under the withdrawal agreement, which grants additional safeguards to EU citizens with settled status, making it harder for the Home Office to deport them.
However, Kekstas appealed against his deportation because removal would breach his right to a family life under Article Eight of the ECHR.
His appeal was initially upheld by a lower immigration tribunal judge, who mistakenly granted him protection under the withdrawal agreement and cited his ECHR rights.
A higher tribunal later dismissed this argument but ordered a fresh hearing to assess his claim under the right to a family life.
Under immigration law, any foreign national sentenced to more than four years in prison is automatically subject to deportation unless they can prove there are “compelling” and “exceptional” family circumstances.
Kekstas’s case is the latest in a string of similar rulings, as reported by The Telegraph, where serious criminals have halted deportation by citing article eight of the ECHR. Other cases highlighted include a Zimbabwean killer, an Albanian murderer, and a Turkish drug baron who successfully argued that deportation would violate their right to a family life.
One such case involved a Zimbabwean man, convicted of killing another person in a car crash, who avoided deportation after it emerged he had an illicit child in the UK.
He had been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for causing death and serious injury while driving under the influence of drink and drugs at excessive speeds. The court ruled that deporting him would infringe upon his family rights.
Another case saw an Albanian national, Fatmir Bleta, jailed for 13 years for murder in his home country, successfully argue that deportation would be “unduly harsh” on his UK-based family.
Bleta, 64, had entered the UK fraudulently, claiming to be Kosovan to seek asylum. He was later jailed in 2018 for deception but was still allowed to remain.
A Turkish crime boss, sentenced to 16 years for heroin distribution, also won his case to stay in Britain on family rights grounds despite maintaining an extramarital affair in Turkey and marrying the woman to “preserve her honour”.
There are currently 34,169 outstanding immigration appeals, predominantly on human rights grounds, creating significant challenges for Labour’s efforts to speed up the deportation process.
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to close legal loopholes, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for reforms to prevent judges from using the ECHR to block deportations.
Both parties are under pressure from Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, who has vowed to withdraw entirely from the ECHR.
