A Romanian man, jailed for robbery, escapes deportation due to ECHR family rights, raising questions about UK immigration laws.
London: So, there’s this Romanian guy, Ionut-Mihai Sofroniei, who got seven years for a violent robbery. He was supposed to be deported, but guess what? He claimed it would mess with his family life rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
He argued that since he’s been in the UK for ten years, married a Lithuanian woman, and has a baby daughter, he should be protected from being sent back home. Pretty wild, right?
Just before his deportation hearing, he even applied for EU settled status, even though he missed the deadline. He said he couldn’t do it earlier because he was locked up. The judge ended up agreeing that this was an exceptional case.
Now, this whole situation has sparked a lot of chatter about the UK’s membership in the ECHR. Some folks, like Richard Tice from Reform UK, are saying it’s a prime example of how foreign criminals are taking advantage of the system.
It’s not just him, either. There’s been talk about a Turkish drug dealer who also managed to dodge deportation by claiming family rights, despite some pretty shady background. It’s all a bit of a mess, and it’s got people questioning how the immigration system works.
Sofroniei came to the UK in 2015 and got his first conviction just two years later. He was found guilty of robbery in 2020. After being told he’d be deported in July 2023, he fought back, and now he’s still here, at least for now.