Abysmal!

That’s how a judge described illegal migrant’s long list of crimes... but we are STILL giving him £40,000 for being locked up while he fought deportation

A FOREIGN criminal with what a judge called an ‘abysmal’ history of offending has been awarded £40,000 compensation – for being locked up while he fought deportation.

Illegal immigrant Khalid Belfken was handed the payout after the Government was told it had acted unlawfully by holding him in immigration detention for too long.

The Moroccan racked up 21 criminal convictions for 41 offences in 11 years and regularly re- offended within weeks or months of a previous offence.

A judge accepted the 27-yearold drug addict, who regularly carried weapons, presented a ‘high risk of harm’ to the public if he was free to roam the streets.

But the career criminal has now been awarded damages for being wrongly detained for around ten months while officials tried in vain to boot him out.

In a ruling revealed yesterday, the High Court said the Home Office had blundered by holding Belfken when there was ‘ no reasonable prospect’ of deporting him.

Attempts to kick him out of Britain became farcical as he repeatedly lied about his name, age and place of birth to avoid being put on a plane home.

Incredibly, it is the second time he has been awarded substantial damages for unlawful detention.

Last night the case fuelled calls for ministers to make it tougher for foreign criminals to thwart moves to deport them.

Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘There will be understandable outrage among taxpayers that a convicted criminal should be handed such a large sum of money. This is rewarding his wrongdoing. If foreign nationals are in this country committing crimes then they should be sent home from where they came, not given a sum of money that many members of the public would envy.’

Last month the Daily Mail exposed the case of Somalian thug Abdi Yusuf, who has been fighting deportation for five years. Weeks after the High Court ruled Yusuf, 41, was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully pending deportation, he was jailed for six months for assaulting a woman. This is likely to hold up his deportation until at least next year.

Belfken arrived in the UK aged 15 in March 2005 and tried to claim asylum, but his application was refused. He was granted a visa to remain until his 18th birthday but within months had turned to crime, embarking on an 11-year spree.

His offending began in October 2005 with convictions for theft and burglary. His criminal record also includes possessing offensive weapons and twice attacking police officers.

He has been locked up four times by British judges but swiftly went back to his criminal ways every time he was released. His latest crimes involved breaking into people’s homes with a weapon at night and stealing their possessions.

Belfken has been subject to a deportation order since February 2008 – making him an illegal immigrant. He was held in a string of immigration detention centres for a total of four years and two months – at a cost of around £40,000 a year – because he was deemed a ‘harm to the public good’.

But despite six attempts by the Home Office, the Moroccan authorities refused to provide travel documents or take him back. He was placed in immigration detention because officials considered his ‘atrocious’ criminal record so serious and said his habit of carrying weapons made him a serious danger to the public.

But given the Moroccans’ stance, there was at the time no realistic prospect of him being deported, said Judge Karen Steyn at London’s High Court. She said he had been illegally detained from July 2016 to May 2017.

She said: ‘He has no lawful right to remain in the UK and he should leave. As he has not left voluntarily, it is strongly in the public interest that the Secretary of State should deport him, if possible.

‘He has an abysmal offending history. There can be no doubt that the risks of him re-offending and absconding, on release, were extremely high. He was rightly assessed, in July 2016, as presenting a high risk of harm to the public.’

But she added: ‘Nevertheless, the right to liberty is of fundamental importance.’

Somali thug wins damages for botched deportation... then he’s jailed for assault