Deported Albanian drug dealer who returned illegally can stay in UK
An Albanian drug dealer who returned to the UK after being deported for drug offences has been allowed to remain in Britain despite having committed further crimes.
Stiljano Ziu was jailed for nine months after being convicted of producing cannabis but was released early on condition that he agreed not to return after being deported.
In breach of his deportation, he returned and married a Greek national resident in the UK, on the basis of which he claimed the right to remain in the UK.
He was backed by a lower and upper immigration tribunal, on the basis that he was not a threat to the public, despite an appeal by the Home Office who said he had shown 'blatant disregard' for the immigration controls.
However, Ziu was subsequently convicted of drug dealing, which means he faces the prospect of deportation for a second time.
The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example uncovered by The Telegraph where illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have been able to remain in the UK or halt their deportations on human rights grounds.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has announced plans to curb judges' powers to block deportations with new legally-enforced 'common sense' rules to clarify how judges interpret human rights laws and strengthen the public interest test.
The court was told Ziu entered the UK unlawfully in 2017 or 2018. In November 2018 he was convicted of offences involving the production of cannabis and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He was deported the following month.
However, he illegally re-entered Britain in early 2019 and just before Christmas 2020 he applied for a residence card as the spouse of a Greek national exercising treaty rights to stay in the UK. They married in April 2021.
The application was refused but he successfully appealed to a first tier tribunal which noted that his unlawful entry to the UK was four years ago.
'Not a threat'
It found in his favour on the basis that it could not 'be satisfied that there is a 'present' threat to the integrity of the immigration system in the circumstances.'
The Home Office appealed, arguing that he posed a 'genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat' to the public and that deportation was proportionate.
It noted that his period of residence in the UK was limited and he had started a relationship with his wife at a time when he had entered the UK in breach of a deportation order.
'His familial links were insufficient to establish integration in the UK and his ability to reintegrate into Albania, his country of origin, was realistic,' the Home Office told the court.
Ziu was, at the time of the appeal, facing trial for drug producing and dealing but the court said an impending prosecution did not automatically disqualify him from the right to stay as he could be proved innocent.
The upper tribunal dismissed the Home Office appeal. 'We find that the Secretary of State has failed to show that the first-tier tribunal erred in law and we dismiss the Secretary of State's appeal,' the judge declared.
However, Ziu was convicted in November and jailed for four-and-a-half years for two counts of conspiring to supply Class B drugs.
The judge said: 'What happens next is of course a matter for the Secretary of State. However, the claimant must understand that his recent conviction has resulted in a sentence that may require his deportation from the United Kingdom and that is something the Secretary of State will consider. It may be that this case has been an academic exercise.'
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