Afghan sex offender not deported over fears for safety

Judge rules asylum seeker can stay in Britain as his behaviour would put him at risk of ‘mob violence’

AN AFGHAN sex offender avoided deportation after lawyers claimed his treatment of women would put him at risk of “mob violence” in his home country.

The 31-year-old asylum seeker was jailed for 12 weeks for “outraging public decency and exposure” and was placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

However, the Afghan was awarded refugee status and avoided deportation after claiming it was a breach of his human rights to deny him asylum in the UK.

Doctors told the immigration tribunal that the Afghan man, referred to only as DH, continued to act “inappropriately” towards women despite his conviction.

An immigration tribunal judge agreed with lawyers that his “risky behaviours” would expose him to “ill treatment” and even “mob violence” if he returned to Afghanistan.

The tribunal judge Christopher Hanson therefore ruled that the man should be granted refugee status, allowing him to remain in the UK.

The disclosure follows controversy over a similar decision to grant asylum to Abdul Ezedi, the Clapham chemical attacker, despite a conviction and suspended jail sentence for two offences of sexual assault and exposure.

Laura Farris, the Home Office minister, told Sky News that she would investigate the Afghan case. “It is absolutely right that the public expect all foreign offenders to be deported when their sentences are completed. I will look into that particular case,” she said.

Foreign offenders face automatic deportation if they are sentenced to at least a year in jail. This is a reduction from two years which was introduced by the Home Office following the Ezedi case.

However, Ms Farris suggested the Government could go further, saying her “preference” would be for all foreign sex offenders jailed for any length of time to be deported. “By and large sex offenders should be removed from the UK,” she said.

It is understood the Home Office is considering a lower threshold than the one-year jail sentence for specific offences such as sex crimes, which would make it easier to deport foreign offenders for these offences.

The Afghan was jailed at central London magistrates after deliberately exposing his penis and, according to the court documents, was considered to have met the criteria for deportation as a threat to the public.

However, he appealed his asylum on the basis that his mental illness created a “strong likelihood of sexually disinhibited behaviour that in Afghanistan would lead to serious harm”.

The court found the risk of such behaviour increased as his mental health deteriorated. “His mental health is very likely to deteriorate if he were returned [to Afghanistan].

“It is reasonable to infer from this that the risk of the appellant behaving in an unacceptable way would also

‘His mental health is very likely to deteriorate if he were returned to Afghanistan’

increase,” say the documents.

“The consequence of [DH] behaving inappropriately towards a woman or touching himself in public would be to enrage onlookers. There is a real risk of mob violence. The risk is more than fanciful. The appellant’s risky behaviours have endured in the UK for several years now.”

The tribunal ruled that the Afghan’s mental health condition was sufficiently established to justify his inclusion in a “protected” group, thus securing his right to being granted asylum in the UK.

Ms Farris said the Government was determined to end the legal “merry go round” which saw asylum seekers winning up to half of their appeals to immigration tribunals.

The Government’s illegal migration act aims to create a one-stop shop to prevent asylum seekers introducing multiple new pieces of evidence to support their claims.

Anyone arriving illegally in the UK faces being detained and removed to a safe third country, such as Rwanda, where they will claim asylum.