A people smuggler who was jailed after sneaking back to the UK after being deported is free again – and now he’s fighting a second deportation on human rights grounds.
The Home Office tried deporting Alket Dauti after his prison term ended, but the Albanian crime boss has launched a legal challenge under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), claiming he has a right to stay here as his wife and children live in the UK.
He is now roaming London with an electronic tag after being granted immigration bail.
Dauti, 38, has been seen eating out at Pizza Express and an Albanian restaurant, with relatives posting ‘celebration’ photos on Facebook.
His is the latest case where the Home Office has been unable to deport a foreign criminal at the end of his jail term because of appeals under the ECHR.
Last night Robert Jenrick, the Tory justice spokesman, said: ‘This vile man needs to be deported immediately. Criminals like Dauti are living the high life because the ECHR prevents us removing him. This is the latest case uncovered by The Mail on Sunday which shows how our immigration system actively works against the interests of the British people. It’s high time the Government put the safety of the British people first and left the ECHR.’
In March this year, a week after the MoS reported he was back in the UK, Dauti was arrested in Penge, south-east London, and charged with entering the country without leave. He was then jailed for eight months in May at Woolwich Crown Court, but was released in recent weeks.
Government sources have said Dauti is on immigration bail and has to wear a tag all the time, and report to the Home Office regularly, but his legal fight could now go on for years due to the backlog in the courts system.
Alket Dauti, 38, has been seen eating out at Pizza Express and an Albanian restaurant, with relatives posting ‘celebration’ photos on Facebook
His is the latest case where the Home Office has been unable to deport a foreign criminal at the end of his jail term because of appeals under the ECHR
An ‘aunt’ called Nurie Memia posted several photos of Dauti, his wife and daughters at the Illyrian Grill in Wood Green, north London, last week, with a caption saying: ‘100 more years, with lots of blessings.’
Dauti – who first came to the UK legally in 2009 – led a gang that smuggled hundreds of migrants, including children, in the backs of refrigerated lorries from Belgium to the UK, netting the crime group hundreds of thousands of pounds.
They used to charge each migrant £8,000 for space in the back of a lorry, and £13,000 for a seat at the front with the driver.
In 2018, Dauti was arrested in Penge by the National Crime Agency and sent to Belgium, where he had already been sentenced to ten years in jail in absentia and fined £625,000. Dauti served half of his sentence, and was deported back to Albania.
He sneaked back into Britain and in November last year Dauti began posting videos of himself on his TikTok and Instagram accounts, sometimes driving a black Mercedes.
When the MoS told the Home Office, it said it had no record of him returning to the UK. Dauti told us on the phone that he flew into Luton airport on a Wizz Air flight from Albania.
A week after our story was published he was arrested at home, and later pleaded guilty to entering the UK illegally.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are bearing down on foreign criminals and illegal migrants who exploit our laws by making vexatious human rights claims that ground flights.
‘As well as introducing the most significant reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times, we are scaling up removals of people with no right to be here – with nearly 50,000 already removed.
‘This action will make our country and its citizens safer, bringing an end to the abuse of our legal system and securing Britain’s borders.’
