An Iranian illegal immigrant in the UK, found to support Islamic State (ISIS) and pose a real and serious danger to the British public, will not face deportation for fear he will be tortured back in Iran, an investigation by The Telegraph has revealed.
The 32-year-old Sunni Muslim, released from the detention center in June after judges ruled that being confined was bad for his mental health, was spared deportation to Iran in January.
Named only as D8 in court documents, he entered Britain illegally twice, in 2017 and 2021.
In July 2022, the Home Office rejected his asylum application on national security grounds, saying that he had an Islamist mindset and maintained support for the Islamic State.
He has now been given five years’ leave to remain as a refugee in the system, which safeguards human rights before national security.
He is the latest case of many to be waived deportation on human rights grounds, most citing the right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which limits the British government’s attempts to remove illegal migrants in spite of the UK leaving Europe.
In a hearing in January, the judges in the case said: “Drawing the threads together, the secretary of state has concluded that D8 is a danger to the national security of the United Kingdom."
"It is inherent in that conclusion, which the secretary of state was entitled to reach, that he represents a real and serious danger.”
The judges, however, said that if D8 were returned to Iran “his life would be put at risk” and he would be exposed to “a real risk of torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment”, likely due to his being a minority Sunni Muslim, and Iran’s own battle against Islamic State extremism on its own soil.
