Deporting Albanian migrant jailed for cannabis farming would breach his Filipino wife’s human rights
A migrant jailed for cannabis farming has escaped deportation because it would have breached his wife’s human rights had the couple been forced to choose between moving to Albania or splitting up, an immigration court has ruled.
Judges decided that it would be “unduly harsh” for the Filipino wife of convicted drug producer Gazmend Jaupaj to be separated from him or forced to move to Albania with him should he be deported.
It rejected the Home Office’s decision to deport Jaupaj, 38, on the grounds that doing so would be a breach of the couple’s human rights. Article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) stipulates that everyone has a right to respect for their private and family life.
“The effect of [Jaupaj’s] deportation upon his wife would be unduly harsh. It is not a realistic option to expect her to relocate to Albania, and separation from her husband is likely to cause real harm to her mental health,” the tribunal’s ruling stated.
Jaupaj entered the UK illegally on Sept 1 2012 and met his wife in February 2018. They married on April 17 2021.
He cultivated 600 marijuana plants in village house
A month later he was arrested on suspicion of drug offences after police found he was cultivating 600 marijuana plants in a house in the Leicestershire village of Thurmaston.
Jaupaj, his brother, Naim, and a third man had attracted the attention of their electricity supplier because the property’s meter had been bypassed. Police officers called to investigate on Tuesday May 19 could not initially gain access to the house because it had a heavily fortified door.
However, neighbours drew their attention to two men on the roof of the property and officers managed to get inside it and detain the three men. They also found 600 marijuana plants, capable of producing about 33kg (72.6lbs) of cannabis with a street value of up to £1 million.
Officers also found a 15kg consignment that had been vacuum packed ready to be taken away. That would have had a street value of some £500,000.
Jaupaj was jailed for two years for producing a controlled drug. A subsequent deportation order made on Sept 13 was challenged by his lawyers.
Wife’s mental health would suffer if he were deported to Albania
The tribunal was told his wife had no family in the UK, suffered from mental ill-health and was on medication. Her claims were supported by sick notes and a social worker said the deportation of her husband would cause a “relapse” in her mental health.
Jaupaj’s lawyers said she did not speak Albanian and it would be difficult for her to integrate in Albanian society. They added that she was settled in the UK, was an active member of her church and had a well-paid job and her primary source of support was her husband, the lawyers added.
The Home Office has appealed the case and it is being reconsidered by a first-tier tribunal. Home Office lawyers argued that the original tribunal had failed to provide evidence to support its claim that deportation would be “unduly harsh” and had not explained why the woman could not be supported by specialist mental health services in the UK.
It follows disclosures by The Telegraph that a migrant jailed for cannabis farming escaped deportation because he claimed he could no longer speak his native language and an Albanian crime boss was allowed to remain in the UK despite being jailed for smuggling £8 million of his gang’s profits out of the country in suitcases.
