‘Iraqi paedophile spared deportation from Britain after claiming he feared persecution at home’

An Iraqi paedophile was reportedly spared deportation from Britain after he claimed to fear persecution in Iraq because he is bisexual.

The man who is only known as MA due to an anonymity order had entered the UK illegally in September 2017, according to the Mirror. 

In November 2018 he was jailed for 10 months for abusing a child and was ordered to sign the sex offender register. Deportation papers for MA were signed and an order was created to make him leave Britain. 

In a legal bid to stay, the paedophile told an immigration tribunal he should be protected as he was at risk of ‘honour-based violence’ for ‘his bisexuality’ – and he won his case. 

Home Secretary Suella Braverman contested the ruling by claiming that MA told ‘numerous lies’. 

He also claimed protection under his right to a family life in the UK. 

Government lawyers said it was ‘not accepted the appellant is at risk of persecution because of his sexuality’ and told the Mirror: ‘It is considered his deportation is in the public interest given the offence committed and likelihood of reoffending.’

However, upper tribunal judge Therese Kamara, sitting in Central London, agrees with the initial ruling.

She told the appeal hearing that that his fear of persecution at the hands of his own family due to his sexuality was a ‘relevant factor’ as well as the ‘potential risk from the public, discrimination by the authorities [and] the absence of protection for LGBTI people’.