Strasbourg approves deportation of Nigerian drug dealer

Ndidi v the United Kingdom (Application no. 41215/14) had the beginnings of a tabloid splash. A Nigerian national convicted of drug dealing, who had lived in the UK since the age of two, sought to block his deportation by recourse to foreign judges. The European Court of Human Rights disappointed would-be headline writers by approving the Secretary of State’s decision to deport Ifeanyi Chukwu Ndidi due to his long and escalating history of criminality.

Crimes and deportation order

Mr Ndidi entered the UK with his family just before his second birthday. He first got in trouble with the law when he was 12 years old, and continued to be throughout his teenage and early adult years. At 18 years old, Mr Ndidi was warned that he could be liable to deportation if he committed further criminal offences.

He did not heed this warning, ultimately pleading guilty to drug dealing in July 2006 and receiving seven years’ detention in a Young Offender Institution. Upon release he was subject to automatic deportation under section 32(5) of the UK Borders Act 2007. That provision requires the Secretary of State to deport foreign criminals sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment or more, unless removal would breach their Article 8 rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

During Mr Ndidi’s domestic representations, the Immigration Rules were amended to provide that the deportation of foreign criminals would not be a breach of Article 8 if they were sentenced to four or more years’ imprisonment. The public interest in deportation would only be outweighed by human rights considerations in “exceptional circumstances”.

via: freemovement