An Iraqi drug dealer could avoid deportation by claiming that he has become "too Westernised" while living in the UK to return to his home country.

       The unnamed criminal was sentenced to five years and four months in jail for dealing cocaine in 2015, after arriving in the UK in 2001 and unsuccessfully trying to claim asylum nine years later.

       Although the claim was dismissed, he was allowed to stay in the country on an indefinite basis and whether he will be deported back to Iraq after completing his sentence is subject to ongoing legal action.

       A lower immigration tribunal initially ruled that he could stay in Britain because he didn't pose a danger to the community and was focused on "enjoying his family life with his partner and child". However, the Home Office appealed against the decision and it is now being reconsidered.

       The Iraqi's line of argument in court centred on having become "too Westernised" to return to his home country after 24 years in the UK, according to The Telegraph.

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       The court was told that shipping him back overseas could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) article which entitles people to a family life, citing his young daughter who is a British citizen.

       If deported, the drug dealer would return to Iraq as a "single lone male and failed asylum seeker, without documentation and a Westernised profile which, taken collectively, demonstrated [that he] had 'a much higher likelihood of being targeted and persecuted'" on his return, lawyers argued.

       His long time away from Iraq would also leave him in a vulnerable position without "anyone to vouch for him" and no access to employment, acccommodation or healthcare, they suggested.

       Before he was jailed, the criminal was also denied a European Economic Area residence card, which allows non-EU residents to live and work in the UK.

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       Judge Anna-Rose Landes said the initial lower tribunal had been mistaken in its judgement that the man could stay in Britain.

       She said a new hearing should examine whether he was eligible for asylum status or "humanitarian protection", a form of immigration granted to individuals unable to return to their home countries who don't meet refugee criteria.

       The hearing will take place at an unspecified later date, making it one of around 34,000 outstanding asylum appeals in the system - a fivefold increase on the 6,386 pending cases in early 2022.

       It comes after an Albanian criminal was allowed to stay in Britain under the right to family life provision of the ECHR by arguing that deportation would have a negative impact on his son, who refused to eat chicken nuggets outside of the UK.