Erind Koka, 33, came into the country unlawfully on a lorry in October 2019 after seven years of attempting to do so.
An Albanian man, Erind Koka, who illegally entered Britain four times and was jailed for cannabis farming, avoided deportation after a judge ruled he did not meet the legal definition of a "foreign criminal" under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The judge stated Koka's eight-month sentence for watering cannabis plants did not meet the criteria of a 12-month prison sentence, causing "serious harm," or being a "persistent offender." The Conservatives are proposing changes to allow deportation of all foreign criminals, eliminating the 12-month jail term threshold. Koka's case is among a backlog of nearly 75,000 deportation appeal cases. Ministers are planning to set a deadline for asylum appeals to be heard within 24 weeks.
