Albanian ex-drug dealer who snuck back into UK after being deported allowed to stay as it ‘would be unfair on his wife’

A CONVICTED Albanian drug dealer will not be deported from the UK because it would be “harsh” on his partner, a court has ruled. Dardan Hoxhaj, 31, who snuck back into Britain after first being deported in 2018, will be allowed to stay because his wife would be “unable to cope”. Hoxhaj’s barrister, Mr Karim, argued it would be ‘unduly harsh’ Credit: Alamy A judge ruled Hoxhaj’s wife would suffer “considerable issues” if she was forced to return to Albania with her husband. The immigration tribunal heard he “plays a critical and irreplaceable role” in his home, despite his drug dealing past. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Hoxhaj first came to the UK illegally in 2017, before being convicted of four drug offences for his role in a £750,000 trafficking operation. He was jailed for three years and deported to Albania in September 2018, but the crook managed to return to the UK a month later. Hoxhaj remained undetected for three years until he eventually applied to stay in Britain under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). The outcome of the application was not stated in documents, but Hoxhaj once again applied to stay in September 2023 on human rights grounds. His second application was refused by the Home Office last year, but he has now been allowed to stay after his appeal was granted in May. Hoxhaj’s barrister, Mr Karim, argued that it would be “unduly harsh” for his wife to be forced to return to her home country. Most read in The Sun The tribunal heard she suffers from “complex PTSD, anxiety and depression” as a result of being trafficked. Mr Karim also pointed to Albania’s “strict honour code”, which would make her reintegration into the country difficult. Giving evidence, social worker Paris Blake described Hoxhaj’s role in the household as “critical and irreplaceable”. He helps to calm his wife when she has “panic attacks” and care for his son, who suffers from asthma, Judge Fiona Lindsley was told. The first-tier tribunal heard Hoxhaj “provides essential cooking and cleaning and time to rest for his mentally unwell partner”. Mr Terrell, representing the Home Office, said the first-tier tribunal “failed to apply the correct standard of harshness”. But in her ruling, Judge Lindsley said the Home Secretary’s case was “fatally undermined”. She said: “If Social Services themselves regard the claimant’s role as irreplaceable then it cannot be a material error of the First-tier Tribunal not to address this argument. “It is also clear from the decision itself that issues both of emotional harm and physical harm, and not just emotional harm, are properly both considered when concluding that the stay scenario would be unduly harsh.”