AN asylum seeker running an illegal sex toy smuggling ring has been allowed to remain in the UK after arguing he’d be jailed back home for his illicit business activities.
The unnamed man – who claimed he imported boxes of adult devices, including vibrators – applied for refugee status on the grounds the Iranian authorities would view his choice of work adversely.
Under Islamic law, sex toys are illegal and there is a ban on bringing them into the country.
The man’s argument was dismissed by a lower-tier tribunal, which deemed his evidence “implausible”;.
However, he went on to win an appeal at an upper-tier hearing after claiming asylum on the grounds he would likely be prosecuted in for campaigning against the Tehran regime at protests and on social media.
The tribunal agreed returning to a such a fate in would breach his under the Refugee Convention.
That came after the first tribunal suggested his anti-Iran posts were not genuine and a ruse to help prevent him being deported.
Disclosed in papers seen by The Daily Telegraph, it is the latest example of illegal migrants or foreign criminals using human rights laws to remain in the UK.
Upper Tribunal Judge Paul Lodato found that the Iranian would face “real risk of persecution”; if he were to return home.
There are currently a record 41,987 outstanding immigration appeals, largely on human rights grounds.
