A judge ruled that a convicted Afghan sex offender should stay in the UK because his crimes meant he could face “mob violence” if he returned to his home country.
An immigration tribunal judge awarded the 31-year-old offender refugee status after agreeing with lawyers that his mental illness meant he would likely offend again—something that would expose him to “ill treatment” if he were deported to Afghanistan.
The Telegraph reports that the asylum seeker, named only as DH, was jailed for 12 weeks in 2017 by a central London magistrates court for “outraging public decency and exposure.” He was considered to have met the criteria for deportation as a threat to the public, but appealed on the grounds of deteriorating mental health.
Lawyers argued that his mental illness created a “strong likelihood of sexually disinhibited behaviour that in Afghanistan would lead to serious harm” and that his mental health “is very likely to deteriorate if he were returned.”
“It is reasonable to infer from this that the risk of the appellant behaving in an unacceptable way would also increase,” court documents say.
If he were to behave inappropriately towards a woman or touch himself in public, it would “enrage onlookers” in Afghanistan, leading to a “real risk of mob violence.”
“The risk is more than fanciful. The appellant’s risky behaviours have endured in the UK for several years now,” the documents add.
Home Office minister Laura Farris has pledged to investigate the case. She told Sky News that it is “absolutely right that the public expect all foreign offenders to be deported when their sentences are completed.”
“I will look into that particular case,” she added.
Her comments came after it was revealed that more than half of appeals against asylum decisions in the UK are successful. Sky News reports that immigration tribunal courts have ruled in favour of asylum seekers 51% of the time since 2021. On top of this, the majority of asylum seekers who are unsuccessful stay in Britain illegally anyway.
The revelations follow the case of Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi, another Afghan asylum seeker who had been granted leave to remain in the UK despite a conviction for sex offences. The decision came after a Baptist minister vouched that Ezedi had converted to Christianity and would face persecution if he returned to Afghanistan. A former friend of Ezedi later cast doubt on the sincerity of the conversion.
Ezedi went on to attack a woman and her daughter with a corrosive alkaline substance earlier this year, leaving them with “potentially life-changing” injuries.
