Illegal Albanian who dealt Class-A drugs in Rushden refused release from immigration detention centre

An Albanian Class-A drug dealer has appeared at the High Court to ask a senior judge to decide whether or not he should be kept behind bars.

The 32-year-old man, who entered the UK illegally in 2012, was convicted last April of dealing Class-As in Rushden after he was found by police with £20k of drugs.

He later said he was a victim of modern slavery. But the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman said he was not a victim, and he was told he would be deported as he met the legal definition of a Foreign Criminal.

But now he has taken her decisions to the High Court, claiming he had been threatened with being shot if he did not deal drugs.

The man claimed his detention was unlawful and asked a senior judge to consider allowing him to apply for ‘interim relief’ – his immediate release from detention – or for immigration bail if interim relief was refused.

He also asked the court to allow him to apply for a judicial review of the decision not to send his case back through the National Referral Mechanism – the process by which the state decides whether or not you are a victim of modern slavery.

The court decided he could not be identified but published the outcome of the anonymised hearing in the public interest.

What happened in Northamptonshire?

Mr Justice Lang heard that, in March 2022 when he was arrested by Northamptonshire Police, the Albanian told officers that he had made an application for leave to remain as the unmarried partner of a woman with whom he had a baby in 2020. But this was not true and no application had ever been made.

In fact, his legal counsel conceded that he and his child’s mother live separately and he did not have a subsisting relationship with the child. Immigration records raise doubts that he has a genuine relationship with the mother of his child, suggesting it appears to be ‘a relationship of convenience’.

On 22 April 2022 he was convicted at Northampton Crown Court of one count of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

The court heard how he’d been caught driving an uninsured car containing 200g of cocaine. More coke as well as a machete, scales and cash were found at his girlfriend’s house. He told the court he’d been ‘persuaded’ to top up his income by selling drugs around Rushden.

He said that a man called Alex offered him a job as a decorator in Northampton but said that before he started start work he would have to sell and deliver drugs for him.

The claimant said Alex showed him a gun and said if he refused, then he would kill him.

He said he had delivered drugs for only six weeks before his arrest.

He was sentenced to two years, 10 months in prison. In sentencing him, His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said: “I therefore put your role as significant but only just, because you were not just a slave going round supplying drugs for others.

"You had both deals with you and also a supply from which deals could be made up, together with scales. So there was a level of sophistication in your actions.

"The sentence is 34 months or three years. You will serve up to half of that in custody. For the remainder you will nominally be on licence but because you are now a foreign criminal, as defined in the Immigration Act, you will be deported at the end of your sentence.”

Records show that the sentence was altered to 2 years 10 months. His sentence expiry date is January 3, 2025, and his conditional release date was August 4, 2023.

What happened after he was convicted?

On October 2 last year he made a claim for asylum but six days later he was informed the Home Secretary would deport him as a foreign criminal, with no right of appeal.

His asylum claim nevertheless began progression through the system and he was transferred to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Centre.

His solicitors requested he be put through the National Referral Mechanism and a report from an immigration expert said that she found elements of exploitation in his case.

In August this year, he was told that because his crime was ‘particularly serious’, it ‘constitutes a danger to the community’. He was therefore told he was not eligible to apply for asylum in the UK.

Then, on August 26 the man visited a doctor and claimed to be a victim of torture, saying an injury to his knee was gained in 2021 when he was allegedly trafficked. The doctor noted no physical injury, but started him on anti-depressants and said in his report that: “I believe this patient could be a victim of torture. His story is consistent with his mental scars. He is currently stable in detention with regards to his physical and mental health. However, he may deteriorate.”

The man was assessed of having a medium risk of absconding and a medium risk of reoffending.

He was reminded of his right to leave the country under the Facilitated Return Scheme, which provides cash grants of £1,500 for foreign criminals who voluntarily leave the country while still serving their sentence.

In September the claimant made a number of challenges toward decisions that had not gone in his favour, including one that found there were no ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect he was the victim of modern slavery and he would not be referred back to the NRM.

He claimed that the Home Secretary’s negative ‘reasonable grounds decision’ dated 12 October 2023 was defective and that she had failed to discharge her positive obligation to identify and protect the claimant as a potential victim of modern slavery.

What did the High Court judge say at last month’s judicial review?

In assessing his case, Mr Justice Lang the stories that claimant had given were ‘inconsistent’. In his asylum screening in 2022 the claimant said that he had never been subjected to exploitation.

Mr Justice Land said: “Particular consideration has been given to the judge’s (Mayo) sentencing remarks which has significantly damaged the credibility of your account. It is considered the judge’s findings are reliable, held to the highest standard of proof and are therefore not disputed by the IECA. It is considered that you have provided inconsistencies which call into question your credibility to the point where your account cannot be believed.”

He said that the Home Secretary’s decision that there were ‘no reasonable grounds’ to show that the claimant was a victim of modern day slavery was the correct one.

The claimant had also asked the court to consider whether his detention had been lawful. The judge ruled that it was both reasonable and proportionate and said that the detention should continue.

He denied the application for interim relief, the application for immigration bail, and the application for permission to apply for judicial review.

What happens now?

The man will be removed within six months as a Foreign National Criminal unless he appeals his deportation notice within 20 days.

His parallel asylum claim will continue and any deportation will be delayed until after his application is complete. If asylum is refused he will likely have no right of appeal and will be removed within 12-16 weeks.

You can read the full court judgement here.