Theresa May, the Home Secretary, had ordered that the violent drug dealer, known only as AP because his identity was kept secret by the judges, should be sent back to Trinidad. Article Eight is the number one reason criminals or immigrants, who either entered Britain illegally or breached their visa conditions, managed to defeat deportation, the figures from HM Courts Service show.
There were 233 appeals against deportation in 2010, of which 149 were successful under human rights laws ? 102 of them solely citing Article Eight.
Thirty-five were under Article Three, which protects people from being killed or tortured if returned to an unsafe country, and the rest used a mix of Articles.
Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of MigrationWatch, said: ?We must find a new balance between the rights of individuals and the rights of the community, which appear to have no weight at all.
?The fact that seven out of 10 who succeed have used Article Eight underlines the significance of an effective review. It is not enough to kick this issue into the long grass yet again.?
The figures come after a series of Article Eight cases exclusively revealed by this newspaper, which is demanding reform in our End the Human Rights Farce campaign, including:
?A Nepalese killer, Rocky Gurung, allowed to remain here even though he was a single adult with no children, who lived with his parents.
?A Sri Lankan robber allowed to remain here because he has a girlfriend in Britain.
?An Iraqi killer who, it was ruled, should not be deported because he would be a risk to people in his homeland.
?A Bolivian man who avoided deportation partly because he had bought a pet cat.
Last week this newspaper disclosed how tens of thousands of asylum applicants had been allowed to remain
in Britain under the Home Office?s backlog-clearing exercise because officials feared that challenging any case with ?family life? factors would be overturned in the courts, and lead to expensive legal actions.
The latest case, involving AP, will again raise concern about how judges are applying the law. From north London, he has a five-year-old daughter and ?did not provide care for her ... nor provide any funds for her maintenance?, according to the court, but still won his fight to stay in Britain because of his ?right to family life?.
AP, who lives in a �500,000 housing association flat close to one of London?s most desirable streets, was jailed for 18 months by Ipswich Crown Court in May 2008 for possession of cocaine with intent to supply. His criminal record included battery of his partner in August 2007. He was handed a community sentence, which he breached and was later given a suspended two-year jail sentence.
Home Office officials notified him that they intended to deport him back to the Caribbean, but he appealed and after his release from jail in January 2009 told a tribunal he was remorseful and getting his life back on track. Two days later he was arrested for possession of cocaine and fined �75.
In March 2009 a tribunal ruled that AP should not be deported. The judges said: ?We are satisfied that the effect of his proposed removal on all members of his family unit in the UK would result in removal being disproportionate, especially since he has a child who has a strong bond with him and he with her and we have heard credible evidence that he is a good and caring father.
?We therefore find, in striking a fair balance between the rights of the individual and the interests of the community, that our assessment of proportionality is that a decision to remove the appellant is in all the circumstances not proportionate and we allow this appeal under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.?
The Home Secretary appealed against the decision, but it was upheld by Lord Justice Longmore, Lord Justice Carnwath and Lord Justice Rimer at the Court of Appeal last month.
AP came to Britain aged three, when his mother was already in the country. The mother, who also cannot be named, was living here after overstaying a one-month visa which was granted to come from Trinidad to Britain to attend her niece?s engagement party.
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