British court refuses to deport Pakistani drug dealer because he teaches his son Islam
4 June 2025 11:29
A British court has ruled that teaching his son about Islam is a sufficient reason not to deport a convicted drug trafficker from Pakistan to the UK. Pakistani citizen Muhammad Asif Karim avoided deportation because the judges considered his role in passing on religious and cultural knowledge to the child to be critically important, "Komersant Ukrainian" writes with reference to The Telegraph.
the 43-year-old man has seven convictions for 21 offenses, including heroin and cocaine trafficking, for which he served four years in prison. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court found that his deportation would be “unduly harsh” for his son.
The court ruled in favor of Karim after the boy testified about the importance of communication with his father. The son said that his father
“can talk to him about Islam, Pakistani culture and his own upbringing.”
Karim arrived in Britain in 1988 at the age of seven on a tourist visa and has never returned home. After his imprisonment, he avoided deportation by becoming a witness in a murder case, but was later removed from the witness protection program due to his continued criminal activity.
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The tribunal took into account that the man had avoided crime for the past decade and had lived in Britain for 26 years, most of his life. The judges recognized his fatherly relationship with his son as “fundamental” to the formation of the boy’s personality.
The Home Office disputed this as “conjecture” without independent confirmation from a social worker or psychologist. However, the court was satisfied with the child’s testimony about the importance of communication with his father.
The tribunal noted that the boy is of Pakistani origin but is being raised by a predominantly white British mother. The mother confirmed Karim’s positive influence on the child, noting that he could talk to his son about schooling, career choices, and other things that the mother could not talk about.
The court took into account that Karim committed his last crime more than 10 years ago and fulfilled all the requirements of probation and rehabilitation. The court also noted his mental health problems and the fact that he himself was a victim of violence and trauma.
The case is yet another example of foreign criminals using Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to family life to avoid deportation. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to limit the power of judges to block deportations with new “common sense” rules.
Despite a deportation order issued in 2015, Karim’s appeal was not heard until 2023 due to significant delays by government agencies.
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