By Stephen Wright (Daily Mail) — The country’s shambolic immigration laws were under the spotlight yesterday after the High Court ordered the release of a prolific criminal who has been fighting deportation for three years.
A judge ruled that the ‘undesirable’ immigrant, who ‘embarked on a criminal career’ in the UK and still poses a threat of further offending, must be freed from detention.
The High Court was told Ahmed Daq, 32, must be released on bail because the Home Office has already held him for three years to facilitate his removal from the UK but there is still no prospect of deportation.
A judge ruled: ‘Removal is not going to be possible within a reasonable time. Therefore his detention has become unlawful.’
Daq, an alcoholic and drug addict, committed 18 offences between 1998 and 2004, using 13 aliases. They included robbery, assault and burglary.
He was due to be released in June 2006 but was immediately served with a further notice of intention to deport, and detained pending removal.
He had been in custody ever since, challenging moves to deport him to Somalia in the Court of Appeal.
Over the past three years, he has been repeatedly in trouble for violent outbursts against other inmates, and detectives fear he will be a menace on the streets.
His latest appeal hearing has been delayed as the legal debate continues over whether it is safe to return criminals and failed asylum seekers to the violent and war-torn east African state.
Deputy High Court judge John Howell QC, sitting in London, observed: ‘This case is a sad reminder of the continuing difficulties in securing the removal of foreign nationals who commit criminal offences in this country which make their continued presence here undesirable.’
He granted Daq bail ‘subject to stringent conditions’ to guard against the risk of him reoffending or absconding.
He observed: ‘There is plainly the risk of him reoffending, but the type of offence he may commit is not in my judgment of the most grave kind, though serious they undoubtedly are.’
The judge described how Daq arrived in the UK in 1997 and claimed asylum as a Somali national who feared for his life in his home country. The judge said the possibility of his having Kenyan connections was now also being explored.
Daq was granted exceptional leave to remain for one year and then applied for an extension, but no decision was made on that application.
The judge said: ‘Meanwhile he embarked on a criminal career in this country.’ The offences included robbery, theft, two assaults causing actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon – an axe – using threatening words and behaviour, and seven burglaries.
One burglary was committed after he had been served with a notice of deportation in 2004, for which he received a two-and-a-half year sentence.
The judge observed: ‘There is plainly the risk of him reoffending, but the type of offence he may commit is not in my judgment of the most grave kind, though serious they undoubtedly are.’
Daq has been held in Bedford Prison following alleged incidents of aggressive and abusive behaviour, including attacks on other inmates, in immigration detention centres.
Amanda Weston, appearing for Daq, said he was suffering from depression and self-harming because of his lengthy detention, and that three years in custody for the purpose of deporting was ‘beyond the outer limits’ allowed by the law.
She said his offending was linked to his drug and alcohol addiction, but he was no longer addicted and no longer posed a threat.
He now had a young son, currently being looked after by an aunt, who had become a strong incentive for him to stay off drugs.
The 2001 census suggested there were 43,000 Somalis in the UK, but experts suggest the figure is at least 95,000 and possibly 250,000.
