William Chow

I am absolutely gobsmacked by this , Britain may be prevented from deporting dangerous foreign criminals if the healthcare system in their homeland is not as good as the NHS. A bombshell ruling from the Supreme Court means killers, rapists and drug dealers may be able to exploit controversial human rights laws to stay in the UK if they can argue they would be denied top quality care if they were sent home. The landmark judgment which risks throwing the Government’s deportation policy into chaos has already delayed the case of gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, whose deportation to Somalia in October 2018 was blocked by a mutiny among plane passengers at Heathrow. Yaqub Ahmed was supposed to be deported to Somalia in October 2018 after he was convicted of conspiracy to rape +8 Since a 2005 House of Lords ruling, the Home Office has been able to deport foreign criminals who are receiving medical care in Britain as long as they are not at ‘imminent risk of dying’ from their illness. However Supreme Court judges, including the controversial Baroness Hale, have now adopted a lower threshold as laid down by the European Court of Human Rights in 2016. Criminals now have only to prove they would experience ‘intense suffering or a significant reduction in life expectancy’ if sent home. The ruling came in the case of a 33 year old Zimbabwean father of one who arrived in the UK in 2000 and was later granted indefinite leave to remain. But he went on to be convicted of a string of offences in a two year period, including battery, assault, receiving stolen goods and possession of sharp blades in public. His deportation was ordered in November 2006 but he was not removed and in May 2009 was convicted of possession of a firearm and heroin with intent to supply. He was sentenced to seven years in jail. Eleven years on, he is still trying to block his deportation under the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees that ‘no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. He claimed that, as a HIV sufferer, deportation would deny him access to life saving treatment as the anti-retroviral medication Eviplera is not available in Zimbabwe. The five Supreme Court justices ruled in his favour. Last night, critics called for the ruling to be overturned. Conservative MP Peter Bone said: ‘If this isn’t reversed by legislation then it will be used to keep more foreign criminals in this country and that’s not right.’ The ruling has caused alarm at the Home Office, which deported more than 5,200 foreign criminals last year, but is grappling with soaring numbers successfully avoiding being returned on human rights grounds up from 60 in 2011 to 172 last year. Ahmed is awaiting the result of a legal challenge against his removal, but the judge in his case has asked for new legal submissions in light of the latest ruling. The 30year old, who was jailed for nine years in 2008 for his part in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in London, claims his mental health has worsened as a result of being in detention. Another case in Strasbourg may make it even harder for the Home Office to kick out foreign criminals. Lawyers for a paranoid schizophrenic fighting deportation from Denmark to Turkey argue that, although his drugs would still be available for free, he may not get other elements of his ‘treatment package’. The UK Government is so worried about any precedent that it has made a submission to the court. Last night a Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are considering the ruling carefully before taking the next steps.’ The judges (including Baroness who took on Boris over Brexit) behind the bombshell ruling Baroness Brenda Hale is no stranger to controversy, having ruled during the Brexit standoff that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. Now, with four other justices of the Supreme Court, she has lobbed a grenade into Government deportation policy. Baroness Brenda Hale is one of four justices of the Supreme Court who made the landmark ruling. Lord Wilson, who retired from the court last week, had previously been accused of straying into areas MPs should decide on, including changing rules on assisted suicide. He and Lady Arden, another of those who delivered the ruling, are ad hoc judges of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The other judges were Lady Black, who in 2017 became the second woman after Lady Hale to join the Supreme Court; and Lord Kitchin, an intellectual property specialist.