Asylum seeker posing 'serious risk' to the public released as deportation bid fails
AN ASYLUM seeker branded a "serial offender" by a judge has been released from immigration detention after Home Office deportation attempts failed.
A 'dangerous' asylum seeker has been released after the Home Office failed to deport him
The man, who has a history of mental health problems and was not named in the ruling, claimed he had been unlawfully detained and demanded compensation from the Home Office.
Details of the case, involving a 31-year-old man, emerged in a ruling by Judge Martin McKenna following a High Court trial in London.
Judge Martin McKenna threw out the compensation claim but said the man arrived in Britain in 2003 and had been convicted of 17 offences over a seven-year period.
The judge described the man as “posing a high risk of harm to the public” and a "serial offender”, listing convictions for attempted robbery, criminal damage, drug crime and shoplifting.
The migrant tried to claim compensation from the Home Office but it was rejected
But the judge said the man had been released late in 2015 after being held in immigration detention for more than 10 months because deportation bids failed.
Judge McKenna said the man, who had been born in a refugee camp in southern Algeria, claimed he was "stateless".
He said Home Office staff had approached authorities in different parts of Africa in a bid to deport the convicted criminal, but officials had refused to provide travel documents to the man.
The man has been convicted of a string of offences including drug crime
He said: “The claimant entered the United Kingdom in 2003. He claimed asylum in June 2003.
"In 2005 the claimant began to develop a mental health disorder. He has been treated as an inpatient in hospital since that time both on a voluntary and involuntary basis under mental health legislation.
"He has had periods when he has been drinking heavily and periods when he has been street homeless. He has had periods when he has been suicidal and periods when he has self-harmed. He has been prescribed medication for his mental health condition."
The migrant, not pictured, was born in a refugee camp and has 'no nationality'
He was assessed as posing a high risk of harm to the public
Judge McKenna added: "The claimant is a serial offender. Between April 7 2005 and September 10 2012 he acquired 14 convictions for 17 separate offences including attempted robbery, criminal damage, drugs and numerous convictions for shoplifting.
"He was assessed as posing a high risk of harm to the public."
Judge McKenna said the man had subsequently been detained under immigration legislation pending deportation.
The man claimed to have been unlawfully detained between January and November 2015.
Home Office officials disputed his claim and sad he had been a "serial absconder" and had committed "numerous criminal offences".
Staff said he had been held at a time when there had been a prospect of deportation and they claim reasonable deportation steps had been taken.
Judge McKenna ruled in favour of the Home Office and dismissed the man's claim for "unlawful detention".