Albanian drug offender deported twice fails third attempt to remain

An Albanian drug offender who has been twice deported from the United Kingdom is attempting to stay for a third time, alleging that he has a kid in the nation and a right to a family life.

Blerim Ismalaj, age 30, was initially expelled from the United Kingdom in January 2013 after spending 16 months in a Young Offenders Institute.

Since then, he has been to the United Kingdom twice, and during his most recent visit in 2019, he had a kid with his British girlfriend, according to The Telegraph.

Ismalaj used his personal circumstances to defend his case under the Human Rights Act, claiming that his three-year-old son’s life would be badly affected if he was forced to leave the United Kingdom once more.

However, a top immigration court has now affirmed the deportation judgment.

Upper Tribunal Judge Gaenor Bruce, speaking at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, observed, “This appeal is completely misconceived.” Deportation of the appellant was not excessively severe for any of his children.

The appellant’s flagrant disrespect for immigration control was one of the extremely substantial considerations that weighed against the defendant.

Judge Gaenor Bruce of the Upper Tribunal at Manchester Civil Justice Centre (pictured) dismissed Ismalaj’s claim, stating, ‘This appeal is totally misconceived. Deportation of the appellant was not excessively severe for any of his children.

The court agreed with the lower-level immigration tribunal’s conclusion that there were no “very compelling circumstances” that trumped the “strong public interest in the deportation of foreign offenders.”

It has been claimed that 12,000 Albanians have made the trek across the English Channel in tiny boats so far this year, coinciding with the timing of this case.

The judge accepted the lower tier immigration tribunal’s verdict there were no ‘very compelling circumstances’ which outweighed the ‘strong public interest in the deportation of foreign criminals’.

In July 2021, Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a repatriation deal with Albania, allowing the United Kingdom to repatriate criminals and failed asylum applicants.

Ismalaj received a deportation order for the first time in December 2012, at the age of 20, after being convicted of “manufacturing a controlled narcotic.”

The court agreed with the lower-level immigration tribunal’s conclusion that there were no “very compelling circumstances” that trumped the “strong public interest in the deportation of foreign offenders.”

A month later, he was deported to Albania, but he violated that order by returning to the United Kingdom in October 2016, when he began a relationship with a mother of two who has a luxury event business in Nottinghamshire.

He returned to Albania in July 2018 but returned to the United Kingdom in January 2019, months before his son’s birth in August. In August of last year, he married his companion in a full church ceremony.

Ismalaj owns a substantial stake in his wife’s firm, but registered his investment with Companies House under the incorrect nationality.

In his November 2019 petition to the Home Office, he said that deportation would violate his right to a family life with his wife, son, and two stepchildren.

This past month, his wife took her three children to Albania to show them Ismalaj’s motherland.

“Blerim is my spouse,” she told the Telegraph. I am his spouse. We have a son together who is three years old. Without a visa to remain in the country, he is unable to work. It was pending, but has been denied. A deportation is fresh information to us.

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated, ‘Those who have no right to be in the United Kingdom, including dangerous foreign nationals who flout our laws, should have no doubt that we will do whatever it takes to remove them. We have removed over 12,200 foreign national offenders from the United Kingdom since January 2019.