Albanian robber can stay in UK despite lying to gain citizenship

AN Albanian armed robber has won a court appeal to remain in Britain despite lying about his nationality to get UK citizenship, and failing to reveal his conviction.

Arsimi Murati, 46, successfully appealed an attempt by the Home Secretary to strip him of his citizenship after he falsely claimed to be Kosovan to stay in the UK , and failed to disclose his 11-and-a-half year sentence for armed robbery in his native Albania.

An upper tribunal immigration judge said the Home Secretary had failed to prove that Murati knew about the conviction when he applied for leave to remain in the UK as he had been tried for the crime in his absence.

Murati had also claimed that his deportation would be a breach of his article eight rights to a family life under the European Convention of Human Rights. The court decision means Murati will now be allowed to remain permanently in the UK despite his conviction and lying about his nationality.

However, it provoked a backlash. “This demonstrates why we need urgent reform of the asylum system and human rights laws to allow the rapid and effective deportation of dangerous criminals,” said a senior Tory MP.

Murati arrived in the UK in November 1999 to claim asylum as a Kosovan fleeing the civil war in his country. He was granted indefinite leave to remain before being naturalised as a British citizen in November 2006.

In 2007, the Albanian government issued extradition proceedings against Murati as in 1998 he had been convicted of armed robbery and sentenced, in absentia, to 11-and-a-half years in prison.

He was extradited to Albanian in 2009 to serve his jail term. By then he had married and had three children but his wife died of cancer in October 2012, leading to his children being placed in local authority care. After his release from prison in 2015, he came back to live in the UK and, in September 2019, his children were returned to him.

However, the following year the then home secretary Priti Patel moved to strip him of his citizenship on the basis that he had obtained it through fraud, false representation and concealing his conviction. In his appeal, Murati admitted he had lied about being Kosovan but said he had not gained British citizenship as a result of making that false claim.

He also claimed he had been unaware of the trial for his armed robbery in Albania and that the first he knew about his criminal conviction was when the extradition proceedings began. “He further submitted that, as the sole carer for his children, it would be a disproportionate interference with his Article 8 family life to deprive him of his British nationality,” say court documents.

The courts accepted his claims and rejected the Home Office’s arguments on the basis that they could not prove he knew about the conviction.