The Home Office acted unlawfully in trying to deport a British-born man who had never been abroad to Portugal, where his parents arrived more than 30 years ago, a judge has ruled.
Dmitry Lima, 28, from Lambeth, south London, does not speak Portuguese and has never traveled abroad, but he faces a deportation order from the Home Office in 2022 after being sentenced to prison for drug offenses and possession of a Taser. I received it.
After court, Judge O’Garo told Lima’s lawyers that his client was British and had been born in the UK while his mother and late father were working in the UK in exercise of their free movement rights under the EU Treaty. Agreed on that point.
“As we found that the appellant was a British national, we found that the defendant’s decision to deport the appellant was not in accordance with the law,” the judge ruled.
Lima’s lawyer, Public Law Solicitor Naga Kandia, said the Home Office’s pursuit of his client was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The case is the latest to highlight the EU’s tougher approach to immigration cases post-Brexit, with the Home Office admitting Mr Lima will face an uphill battle as he has never left the UK, let alone visited Portugal. Nevertheless, the lawsuit is being pursued. They were forced to integrate into a country where they had no social connections and could not speak the language.
Under changes brought in after the UK left the EU, deportation of EU nationals will now be considered “in the public interest and public interest” if they receive a prison sentence of more than 12 months, as is the case for other nationalities. will be done.
Previously, EU nationals who had lived in the UK for five years and had been convicted of a crime were only eligible for deportation “for serious public policy and security reasons”, the criteria for those who remain in the UK on an ongoing basis. had been pulled up. “Unavoidable reasons for public safety.”
Mr Lima was also told that because he had not applied for leave to remain by the June 2021 deadline, he would not be eligible for protection under the EU settled status system.
Lima was sentenced to four years and six months in prison in August 2020 after being found guilty of two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of a prohibited weapon, a Taser. He served for just over two years.
He was given a deportation order in October 2022 after being transferred from prison to Brookhouse Immigration Removal Center at Gatwick Airport.
Mr Lima had no criminal record and claimed that his father’s death and subsequent association with the wrong crowd was responsible for the crime and that he was remorseful.
The Home Office had asked for a stay to appeal a court ruling in Lima’s favor because her mother was working as a hairdresser in London when she was born.
Home Office lawyers argued that Miss Lima’s mother’s lack of National Insurance contributions between 1997 and 2003 meant she lost her “worker” status. A judge dismissed her appeal in 1995, ruling that “the birth of her appellant does not deprive her of her status as a worker.”
The Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
