Albanian drug dealer allowed to stay in UK after ruling it would be 'too harsh' on his family
His barrister argued that it would be “unduly harsh” for his wife to have to return to Albania with him.
A convicted Albanian drug dealer, who returned to the UK after being deported, has been allowed to remain after it was decided that removing him again would be 'too harsh' on his family.
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Dardan Hoxhaj, 31, was first deported to Albania in 2018 after being jailed for his part in a £750,000 drug trafficking operation.
But the tribunal heard he returned to the UK a month later and remained undetected for three years before applying to stay under the EU Settlement Scheme.
He later made a second application in September 2023 on human rights grounds after the outcome of the first application was not set out in court documents.
That application was refused by the Home Office last year, but Hoxhaj was allowed to stay after winning an appeal in May.
His barrister, Mr Karim, argued that it would be “unduly harsh” for his wife to have to return to Albania with him.
The tribunal heard she suffers from “complex PTSD, anxiety and depression” after being trafficked, and it was argued that Albania’s “strict honour code” would make it difficult for her to reintegrate.
Social worker Paris Blake told the court Hoxhaj played a “critical and irreplaceable” role in the household.
The hearing was told he helps support his wife when she experiences “panic attacks” and also cares for his son, who has asthma.
The first-tier tribunal also heard Hoxhaj “provides essential cooking and cleaning and time to rest for his mentally unwell partner”.
For the Home Office, Mr Terrell argued that the tribunal had “failed to apply the correct standard of harshness”.
But in her ruling, Judge Fiona Lindsley said the Home Secretary’s case was “fatally undermined”.
She said: “If Social Services themselves regard the claimant’s role as irreplaceable then it cannot be a material error of the First-tier Tribunal not to address this argument.
“It is also clear from the decision itself that issues both of emotional harm and physical harm, and not just emotional harm, are properly both considered when concluding that the stay scenario would be unduly harsh.”
Hoxhaj first entered the UK illegally in 2017 before being convicted of four drug offences and sentenced to three years in prison.
He was deported to Albania in September 2018, but returned to Britain the following month.