A Turkish heroin dealer suspected of being a major organised crime boss has won the right to remain in the UK on human rights grounds, after the government told him he could stay before belatedly changing its mind. The man, now 70, was jailed for 16 years in 2004 when he was branded a “major player” in a plot to distribute drugs across the UK.In 2011, then-Home Secretary Theresa May decided he should not be deported when set free from prison and did not pose a danger to the community.But that decision was reversed two years later, and efforts began to remove him from the country.An immigration tribunal heard the man, who cannot be identified, is an Alevi Kurd and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee in 1997.The tribunal heard he has lived in Britain since 1992 and says he would face persecution from the Turkish state if he returned to the country of his birth.Evidence from the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, was put forward to support the man’s bid to stay in the country, alongside evidence from Amnesty International of “widespread arbitrary detention” of Alevi Kurds in Turkey.
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00:00A man who was once branded a major player in the heroin drug dealing scene in London
00:05has won the right to remain in the UK on human rights grounds, after the government said
00:10he could stay and then belatedly changed its mind.
00:14The man of Turkish heritage who cannot be identified is now 70 years old, having been
00:19released from prison after serving 16 years behind bars.
00:23Once he was out in 2011, the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, decided he should not be deported
00:29as he did not pose a danger to the community.
00:32But two years later, that decision was reversed and the UK started efforts to remove him from
00:39the country.
00:40This led to an immigration tribunal which heard that the man was an Alevi Kurd and that
00:44he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee in 1997.
00:50He says he would face persecution from the Turkish state if he was returned and this
00:55evidence was supported by UN Refugee Agency and Amnesty International.
01:01His wife and children are all British and he argued that his human right to family life
01:06should block the deportation bid.
01:09The Home Office has called the ruling disappointing.