Turkish drugs supplier wins human rights bid to stay in UK after Home Office U-turn A Turkish heroin dealer suspected of being a major organised crime boss has won the right to remain in the UK on human rights grounds, after the government told him he could stay before belatedly changing its mind.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, supported the man’s bid to stay in the country, alongside evidence from Amnesty International of “widespread arbitrary detention” of Alevi Kurds in Turkey.
An immigration tribunal heard the man, who cannot be identified, is an Alevi Kurd and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee in 1997.
Judges heard the man made a series of short visits to Turkey between 2001 and 2003, but has not been to the country for the last two decades.
The man, now 70, was jailed for 16 years in 2004 when he was branded a “major player” in a plot to distribute drugs across the UK.
