Failed asylum seeker wins right to stay in UK because of wife's kids fathered by another man

Morina had smuggled himself into Britain when he was just 16-years-old, but failed in claiming asylum in 2014 and again five years later.

However, he remained in Britain and in 2021 married Soraia Dias, a Portuguese national also living in the UK. She has two children from her marriage to a Romanian which had broken down over domestic abuse claims, the MailOnline has revealed.

The Home Office tried to deport Morina back to Albania, claiming he was living here unlawfully. However, after instructing solicitors specialising in immigration, he launched an appeal based on the right of respect for private and family life contained in the ECHR.

Independent social worker Laurence Chester argued that Morina had developed a "very close bond" with Dias’s children.

Immigration judge Hugo Norton-Taylor told the hearing he had placed "significant weigh" on Chester’s suggestion that sending Morina back to Albania would have "long-lasting detrimental effects" on his two stepchildren.

Chester’s report added that separation from Morina would cause "significant emotional harm", despite their biological father still playing an "active" part in their lives.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

• Council DEFENDS decision to offer £1,000 grants for Afghan refugees' driving lessons
• Ben Habib: ‘Every single illegal migrant in Britain should be deported - but there's one problem’
• Illegal migrants coming to Britain should be 'put in camps on a west coast island', Lowe claims

Lawyers for the Home Office had made the argument there was no reason for Dias and her children not to move to Albania with Morina.

However, the upper tribunal hearing was told Dias’s "firm and considered" view was that she wanted to remain in the UK close to her ex-husband’s extended family.

The judge told the hearing their Romanian father has refused to let them leave the UK and said Dias could be prosecuted for child abduction if she followed Morina to Albania, adding neither child has a passport and could not obtain one without their biological father’s consent.

The judge concluded the "best interests" of the children "clearly lies in having both biological parents in their lives" along with Morina.

It comes as senior voices in Reform UK and the Conservatives call for the UK to leave the ECHR, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch saying she is willing to leave the ECHR if necessary.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has also previously told activists the party will "die" unless it advocates leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

In his maiden speech in the House of Commons in July, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that quitting the ECHR was the only way the UK would be able to stop the small boats crisis, and that the institution had “now completely outlived its usefulness”.