Kosovan wins claim over unfair detention

Ladi Mulliqi, a 27-year-old born in Kosovo, can expect a payout running into thousands of pounds after he was held too long in custody while unsuccessful attempts were made to deport him after he finished his jail sentence.

A judge robustly criticised the “strikingly ineffectual” activity of officials attempting to remove him from the UK.

Mr Justice Irwin, sitting at London’s High Court, described how Mulliqi was successively convicted of criminal damage, public order offences, assault and driving offences before being sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for the robbery in December 2009.

He said: “What is striking about this story is the sequence of contradictory and ineffectual decisions and actions on the part of officials acting for the Secretary of State.”

Mulliqi, who lived in south east London, entered the UK illegally as an unaccompanied minor in June 2000 and claimed asylum, saying he was of Albanian ethnicity and had fled Kosovo to Albania with a sister and friend at the age of 12 after the family home was set on fire.

His asylum claim was refused but he was given permission to remain in the UK until his 18th birthday in December 2002. He overstayed and a late application to extend his stay was refused, but the application was not dealt with by the Borders Agency for nearly six years.

Yesterday Mr Justice Irwin ruled that the Home Secretary was fully entitled to detain Mulliqi pending deportation after he finished his prison sentence, but “by October 10, 2011, at the latest” should have realised that removal would not be effected within a reasonable period, and detaining him any longer would therefore be unlawful.”