Romanian jailed for violent robbery can’t be deported under ECHR rules

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/21/romanian-jailed-violent-robbery-cant-deported-under-echr/

Posted by weregonnamakit

15 comments

  1. A Romanian jailed for seven years for a violent robbery has avoided deportation after claiming that it would breach his rights to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

    Ionut-Mihai Sofroniei, 30, claimed that the Home Office’s attempt to remove him because of his criminality was a breach of his Article 8 family rights under the ECHR.

    The former construction worker claimed he merited protection against deportation on the basis that he had lived in the UK for a decade, had married a Lithuanian in Britain and had a baby daughter by her.

    In a move that strengthened his claim, Sofroniei also submitted an application for EU “settled status” in the UK the evening before his claim against deportation was heard by an immigration judge.

    The application was outside the “grace” period but Sofroniei claimed he had been unable to lodge it earlier because he had been in custody.

    Sofroniei had been freed from jail shortly before the hearing after serving seven years for robbing a prostitute and her co-worker of their takings.

    The tribunal was told Sofroniei and his two associates subjected the pair to violence during a 20-minute ordeal as they ransacked the property in search of money and other goods.

    His appeal against deportation was granted by a lower immigration tribunal although that has now been referred back to it to be reconsidered because of “an error of law”.

    Sofroniei came to live in the UK in 2015 as a steel fixer and received his first conviction just two years later. In February 2020, he was found guilty of the robbery for which he was jailed for seven years.

    He was served with notice that he would face deportation which he challenged as a breach of his Article 8 rights under the ECHR. It was not until July 2023 that he was told that he would be deported. The hearing was scheduled for Dec 12.

    At 6pm on Dec 11, Sofroniei applied to join the EU settlement scheme, even though the deadline for doing so had passed on June 30 2021. Nonetheless, the judge decided that he was covered by the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

    “Largely for that reason, the judge found that this was an exceptional case which should be allowed under Article 8 ECHR,” the court documents said.

    An upper court judge ruled that the case should be reconsidered although he also accepted that applying outside the “grace” period did not shut the door to Sofroniei securing UK residence.

  2. He has every right… Either the family goes with him or he goes alone. It will be his families decision depriving him of a family, not the country. That is a qualified right not an absolute one.

  3. Well, there is currently a violent robber shortage so we should keep him in the country IMO.

  5. Every other ECHR country doesn’t seem to have a problem with deporting criminals, just the UK…

  6. But we’re not detaining his family here, are we? Therefore we are not depriving him of anything. He has every right to take his family with him.

  7. For anyone wondering why people are begging to leave the ECHR without realizing theyll be giving up their sick leave and other benefits: shit like this is the reason why.

  8. It is an absolute necessity for us to leave the ECHR and begin mass deportations.

  11. Why does the human rights of the foreign criminals trump the human rights of the victims?

  12. Nah, deport. Screw rules. If you come here and break the law you should be deported.

  13. Two interesting bits of context:

    [Tribunal decisions](https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/ui-2024-000502)

    >The offence involved violence and mockery of the trans woman and a search of the property over the course of about twenty minutes

    and [ Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=811931012650607&id=604300756746968&set=a.612296929280684)

    >He was arrested in August 2019 after he was stopped while trying to board a flight to Lithuania

    So he’s a potential transphobe who was in the process of fleeing to Lithuania and now he wants to stay in the country? Yea ok buddy lol.

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