‘One more chance’ — Sroubek
Karel Sroubek wants to be given a chance to start over again. The Czech citizen, who was granted residency despite having gang affiliations and serving a prison sentence for smuggling MDMA, told Newshub if he was deported it would be a death sentence.
“There is no safety for me in Europe, I can’t travel under my name anywhere,” he said.
“All I want is to be given one more chance.”
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has been under fire for his initial decision to grant Sroubek residency.
He has now issued a new deportation liability notice to Sroubek, two months after scrapping Sroubek’s previous one and granting him a New Zealand residence visa under his real name.
It means Sroubek will be ordered out of the country after finishing his drugsmuggling sentence, and will not be allowed to return.
Sroubek was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison and is due to be released in 2022.
Sroubek’s lawyer, Paul Wicks QC, confirmed that Sroubek will fight the deportation in the Immigration and Protection Tribunal on humanitarian grounds.
Sroubek acknowledged to Newshub that he had returned to the Czech Republic twice in 2009, but it was under a false name.
“There’s no safety for me in Europe. I can’t travel under my name anyway. I’m way worse off than I was before.
“I just missed home. I wanted to check on my parents and see if they were all right.”
He said he was not what has been portrayed in the media — though he admitted to the conviction for drug-smuggling, saying that “crime didn’t pay and I’ve lost so much”. “I’m not a gangster. I’m not a murderer or a career criminal. I just want to move on and be given a chance to start over again.”
His comments follow weeks of political pressure on LeesGalloway over his handling of the case, including his admission that he was unaware of court documents that showed Sroubek had returned to the Czech Republic in 2009.
Lees-Galloway has received a dressing-down from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over his handling of the case, but he has not offered his resignation, nor has it been asked for.
“She’s certainly . . . not happy with the way I have handled this case,” he said.
“She expects me to do better in the future and to make sure this process works for all cases in the future.”
Immigration lawyer David Ryken, who did not want to comment on specific cases, said that a person could take a case to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal on humanitarian grounds.
“Does the IPT consider refugee and protection issues in the course of determining a deportation? Absolutely. Has it done so? Many times.”