Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman today told the Prime Minister it is “now or never” to solve Britain’s illegal migration nightmare. In her sharp-tongued speech to the Commons, she lamented the ECHR’s power to prevent the Government from deporting foreign criminals.
Ms Braverman told MPs that her attempts to rid Britain of malevolent illegal migrants were thwarted by legal exploitation of human rights legislation applied to the UK from Strasbourg.
She said: “Previous attempts [at curbing illegal migration] have failed because they did not address the root cause of the problem: expansive human rights laws flowing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), replicated in Labour’s Human Rights Act, are being interpreted elastically by courts domestic and foreign to literally prevent our Rwanda plan from getting off the ground.
“And this problem relates to so much more than just illegal arrivals. From my time as home secretary, I can say that the same human rights framework is producing insanities that the public would scarcely believe.
“Foreign terrorists we can’t deport – because of their human rights. Terrorists that we have to let back in – because of their human rights. Foreign rapists and paedophiles who should have been removed but are released back into the community only to reoffend – because of their human rights.”
Mrs Braverman added: “It is no secret that I support leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights that protects the vulnerable and our national security, and finishes the job of Brexit by extricating us from a foreign court and restores real parliamentary supremacy.”
Express.co.uk has picked out some of the “foreign terrorists” and convicted sex offenders the UK has been unable to send home over the years.
Wahbi Mohammed
Mohammed plotted the infamous July 2005 failed bombings in London, which came weeks after the 7/7 bombings which killed 52.
The Somalian national was imprisoned for 17 years, before seeing his sentence reduced to 13 on appeal. He cannot be deported after arguing that he may face inhumane treatment in his native country.
His lawyers have argued that he risks torture if he is sent back to his east African country of birth, violating Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Ismail Abdurahman
One of Mohammed’s accomplices, Ismail Abdurahman, is another who the UK has struggled to deport. He was jailed for ten years in 2008, which was reduced to eight on appeal. However, his lawyers successfully argued that if he was sent back to Somalia his human rights may be breached.
The Government were forced to pay Abdurahman £13,000 after the ECHR found that Scotland Yard failed to ensure his rights to a fair trial and legal assistance.
In August 2021 he was jailed again, this time for eight months, for breaching his bail conditions.
Mourad Mosdefaoui
The Algerian worked as an ISIS recruiter, luring young people to join the caliphate via social media. He was jailed in 2015 and despite being refused asylum, he cannot be deported after successfully arguing his human rights would be infringed if he booted from Britain.
Joachim Cardos
Joachim Cardos, 43, from The Gambia was jailed for a total of 11 years for rape and dealing cannabis.
Cardos was branded a “danger to women” after he was found to have raped his Scottish victim at knifepoint.
Despite being eligible for deportation due to his status as a foreign national guilty of committing serious crimes, he was allowed to stay in Britain after successfully claiming his human rights would be breached if he returned to his native west Africa.
During his time at HMP Dumfries, the Gambian national was also diagnosed with schizophrenia and said that he would not be able to receive treatment in his country of birth. As such his appeal against his deportation order was upheld.
Then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman attempted to force him out of the country, offering to ensure that he received his treatment in The Gambia as well as £1,250. However the deal was refused.
Yaqub Ahmed
Somalian gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, 34, was eventually returned to his native country after an eight year battle over his deportation.
The sick sex attacker lured a 16-year-old girl to a London flat in 2008, with the help of three other men.
He was jailed in the same year and in 2015 Theresa May, who was then the Home Secretary, stripped him of his refugee status and ordered his removal from the UK.
After years of legal back and forth, culminating in a hearing at the Court of Appeal, Ahmed was eventually forced to leave the country.
But not before passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight at Heathrow successfully forced Home Office officials to remove him from his deportation flight.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Ahmed cost the UK more than £1 million in legal, prison and deportation costs.
As part of the deal to deport Ahmed, he was given a place for 14 weeks in a luxury hotel in Mogadishu as well as a “therapy package”.
Emal Kochai
Afghan migrant Emal Kochai, 29, was found guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl in 2014.
He was eventually deported in 2019, but not before receiving £20,000 in legal aid to challenge his conviction.
Following his deportation, Kochai was spotted in the Grande-Synthe asylum camp outside of Dunkirk, admitting to attempting to board a dinghy back to Britain.
Marwen Darwish
The Algerian 23-year-old dragged an unconscious woman in Newcastle into an alley and raped her. In July he was sentenced to eight years behind bars and will be eligible for deportation after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
Dekan Saed
The 21-year-old Iraqi was jailed for 11 years for repeatedly raping a woman in a flat in Ipswich after plying her with alcohol and cocaine.
Saed tried to kill himself in custody and his legal representative Lynne Shirley said that he is scared that if he is deported back to Iraq he’ll be killed.
Shah Rahman
Bangladeshi terrorist Shah Rahman planned to blow up the London Stock Exchange and was jailed in 2012. The al-Qaeda bomber had a hand-written list found in his property that included the names and addresses of Boris Johnson, two rabbis and the US ambassador.
Rahman was released in 2017 but was sent back to prison in 2021 for having a secret bank account.
