Should foreign paedophiles be granted asylum in the UK? Incredibly, according to Britain’s immigration judges, armed with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the answer seems to be a resounding yes.
A Pakistani man who assaulted a teenage girl has been allowed to remain in Britain, it emerged today, because he is an alcoholic. Apparently, deporting him to his native Pakistan would breach his human rights, as it would lead to him receiving ‘inhuman or degrading treatment’. His legal team argued that, because drinking is illegal for Muslims in Pakistan, he would not be properly rehabilitated should he be sent there.
Incredibly, the immigration tribunal agreed and allowed him to stay in the UK. The decision was made last year, but the details of the case have only come to light following an appeal by the Home Office. And those details are pretty shocking.
The migrant – who has been granted anonymity for his protection – was branded a ‘danger to the community’ by the courts. He was regularly in and out of prison. In 2020, he was jailed for assault and sexual assault. In 2022, shortly after his release, he sexually assaulted a girl under the age of 13. He also has other convictions for beating his ex-wife and assaulting emergency workers.
He was issued with a deportation order in 2020, but this was stalled by his re-arrest in 2022. He then appealed the deportation, citing his alcohol dependence.
The Home Office is thankfully appealing the decision, but it is fighting an uphill battle. Judges now routinely block the deportation of foreign criminals on the flimsiest pretexts imaginable. Indeed, just this week, we learnt that a homeless, drug-addicted Iranian sex offender was granted the right to remain in the UK, because he ‘distrusts authority’ and this would get him into trouble in his home country.
Most perverse of all, migration judges have effectively decided that being a paedophile should actually increase your chances of gaining asylum in Britain. Last month, it emerged that another Pakistani paedophile could not be deported on ‘human rights’ grounds. After he was convicted for preying on ‘barely pubescent girls’, he was supposed to have been deported in 2022. But a judge overruled this decision, due to the fact that his family (understandably) took a ‘dim view’ of his crimes. Being a paedophile, it was ruled, would thus cause him ‘significant difficulties’ in Pakistan.
In a case revealed in February, a convicted paedophile from Zimbabwe was given similarly deferential treatment by a migration tribunal. A judge ruled that he would face ‘substantial hostility’ if he was deported back to his home country on account of his ‘criminal record for child sex offences’.
Britain’s asylum system has become a dangerous joke. Judges have effectively turned the UK into a haven for sex offenders and violent criminals. Our human-rights laws have become a paedos’ charter. We cannot go on like this.
Lauren Smith is a staff writer at spiked.
