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An Albanian man who entered the UK illegally multiple times has avoided deportation by arguing that removing him from the country would violate his right to a family life with his estranged sons.
Astrit Kurtaj first arrived in the UK in 2000 using a false identity, after his asylum claim was rejected in Belgium. He came with his partner and two sons. He was deported in 2004, returned illegally, and was deported again in 2008. After a failed attempt to re-enter legally, he came back to the UK for a third time in late 2011, again without permission.
Despite his long history of illegal entries and a false asylum claim, Kurtaj appealed his deportation in 2014 and was granted the right to stay in 2016. The ruling was based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects an individual’s right to family life.
His right to remain was upheld again in 2019. But in 2022, the Home Office rejected a new application, and Kurtaj appealed once more. A first-tier immigration tribunal judge accepted his argument that he needed to remain in the UK to be with his family and overturned the deportation order.
However, this decision was challenged by the Home Office and sent to an upper tribunal, which has now overturned the previous ruling. The higher court found that Kurtaj no longer had an active family life with his sons and that the earlier judge failed to properly consider his immigration violations.
The upper tribunal highlighted Kurtaj’s history of working illegally, using false identities, and breaching release conditions. It also found that the public interest in enforcing immigration law was not given due weight by the lower court.
Because of these issues, the case will now be reheard by a new tribunal.
This case is part of a broader trend, with many illegal migrants and foreign offenders using human rights legislation to delay or avoid deportation. Examples include an Albanian man who claimed his child couldn’t eat foreign chicken nuggets and a convicted Pakistani child abuser who avoided removal because of the potential hardship to his children.
There are currently nearly 42,000 outstanding immigration appeals in the UK, many involving claims based on the right to family life. These delays are seen as a major obstacle to the government’s efforts to speed up deportations.
