A convicted paedophile from India avoided deportation from the United Kingdom by appealing to a clause in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Indian national, who was sent to prison for 14 months for the distribution of child sex abuse images in 2021, has successfully remained in Britain after his lawyers argued that it would harm his own children to be separated from their paedophile father.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, his lawyers argued that deporting the Indian migrant back to his homeland would breach his right to “private and family life” under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
The paper reported that immigration judge Jetsun Lebasci sided with the appeal in August of last year, finding that it would be “unduly harsh” on the sex offenders to children to remove him from the country. The Home Office has launched an appeal against the decision.
The case has highlighted the longstanding critique from figures such as Brexit leader Nigel Farage over the British government’s refusal to leave the ECHR.
Although the UK left the European Union in 2020, successive ‘Conservative’ governments decided to stay within the confines of the convention and its associated Strasbourg court, which are only technically separate institutions from the EU. Therefore, Britain’s membership was not affected by Brexit.
In his first speech after being elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Claction in July, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for another national referendum to allow the British public to decide whether the UK should leave the ECHR and fully take back control over its borders.
The issue has been picked up by Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick, who has tracked to the political right during the contest to replace failed PM Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party.
Commenting on the ECHR being used by the Indian paedophile to avoid deportation, Mr Jenrick said: “How can anyone defend this madness? The situation is untenable.”
“We cannot even remove sick paedophiles from our streets because of spurious ECHR claims. We must put the safety of the British people first and leave the ECHR immediately.”
Britain’s membership in the ECHR came under heavy scrutiny after the French-based court inserted itself within UK immigration policy in 2022 by issuing a last-minute order to block a flight to remove illegals to asylum processing centres in Rwanda.
The ruling effectively derailed the Tory government’s main plan to deter illegal migrants and prompted legal challenges in Britain. It meant that not a single migrant was removed to Rwanda over the two years following the ECHR order, during which time tens of thousands of illegals continued to pour across the English Channel with little fear of being removed.
The plan to send illegals to Rwanda was ultimately scrapped by the recently elected Labour Party government of Sir Keir Starmer.