Migrant avoids deportation by ‘faking' criticism of Iranian regime

Telegraph

28-03-2025

An illiterate Iranian Kurd has avoided deportation despite a 'cynical' and 'disingenuous' claim to be an opponent of the Tehran regime in Facebook posts that he could not even read.
The unnamed 26-year-old's claim against deportation was initially rejected by an immigration judge who found that the Kurd had pretended to be a critic of the Iranian regime while in the UK to bolster his 'weak' asylum claim.
His political activities included attending demonstrations at the Iranian embassy and making Facebook posts, which the Home Office said must have been written for him by somebody else because he was illiterate.
The court was told: 'The appellant will have no idea what has been posted because he can't read it.'
Despite his claim being rejected by a first-tier tribunal and strident opposition to his appeal by the Home Office, an upper immigration tribunal found there were 'errors in law' in the lower court's judgment and ordered a re-hearing of the case.
This included failing to take sufficient account of the risk that Iran could still regard him as an opponent of the regime and mistreat him in breach of his rights under article three of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against persecution.
Application was rejected
The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have won the right to remain or halt their deportations.
There are a record 41,987 outstanding immigration appeals, largely on human rights grounds, which threaten to hamper Labour's efforts to fast-track the removal of illegal migrants. The backlog has risen by nearly a quarter since September 2024 and is up nearly 500 per cent from 7,173 at the start of 2022.
The Iranian Kurd was a self-confessed cross-border smuggler who left Iran illegally before coming to the UK, where he claimed refugee protection on the basis of his political opinion in June 2021, the court was told. His application was rejected by the Home Office in August 2023.
That decision was upheld by a first-tier tribunal judge who ruled that the Kurd's attendance at demonstrations and posting on Facebook 'did not reflect his genuine political beliefs and would not have come to the attention of the Iranian authorities'.
The judge also identified inconsistencies in his story.
That verdict was backed by the Home Office when the Kurd appealed the lower tribunal's decision. The department's lawyer said his political activities were 'cynical attempts to bolster a weak asylum claim', adding that the Kurd was 'illiterate, so somebody else must be making Facebook posts for him'.
However, the upper tribunal judge disputed 'inconsistencies' in the Kurd's story identified by the first court, saying it was 'internally consistent'.
He said the court failed to consider the risk that the Kurd still faced if deported to Iran, having been involved in anti-regime protests, even if in a 'disingenuous way'.
Wristwatch ban means asylum seeker can stay
Meanwhile, a gay Malaysian asylum seeker has won the right to stay in Britain after a judge ruled his home country's ban on Pride wristwatches showed he was at risk of persecution if sent back.
Judge Bijan Hoshi ruled that the LGBQT+ community was subjected to 'serious discrimination and harassment' by both the government and society in the Southeast Asian country.
In his ruling, the judge referred to the banning of a 'Pride collection' of watches made by the Swiss company Swatch in 2023. The prohibition meant that any Malaysians caught wearing them could face a three-year prison sentence.
While the Home Office initially ruled the asylum seeker, in his early 30s, should return to Malaysia, he appealed and has now been granted refugee status.