Appeals board overturns deportation of Albanian man

Iceland’s Immigration Appeals Board has overturned a decision to deport an Albanian man and bar him from returning for 12 years, ruling that the authorities had not shown deportation was necessary to protect state security or the public interest, mbl.is reported.

The man had been convicted of manslaughter in Albania and is also a suspect in a case involving alleged sexual offences against a child in Iceland. The board said the Albanian conviction alone was not enough to justify deportation on the grounds used by the Directorate of Immigration. It also found that the material on the Icelandic case was limited and that the police assessment of the threat posed by the man was inadequate.

In a ruling dated October 15, the board said more detailed evidence was needed before it could determine whether his conduct in Iceland posed a threat to the public interest.

The man applied for a residence permit in January 2023 as the spouse of an Icelandic citizen. He was allowed to stay in Iceland while his application was being processed. On February 11, the Directorate of Immigration decided to deport him and impose a 12-year re-entry ban. He appealed the next day, and the board suspended the decision’s effects while it considered his case.

The deportation decision relied on a provision in Iceland’s immigration law allowing a foreign national without a residence permit to be removed if necessary for state security or the public interest. The Directorate cited his conviction in Albania and police information about the suspected sexual offence against a child.

In 2007, the man was convicted in Albania of manslaughter and weapons offences relating to crimes committed in 2004. The ruling said he had shot a man dead while acting with others. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, reduced by one third to 12 years. The board considered that he appeared to have completed his sentence between 2016 and 2017, although records from Albanian prison authorities were not available.

The board also considered a separate deportation provision concerning foreign criminal convictions. It applies when a person has been sentenced or served a sentence abroad within the previous five years for certain offences. The board concluded that the 2007 conviction, by itself, did not establish that deportation was necessary to protect state security or the public interest.

A police assessment from June 2025 said the man had also been suspected of working and residing in Iceland without authorisation, violating a re-entry ban and driving without a valid licence. Police considered him a real, imminent and sufficiently serious threat to the community’s fundamental interests, citing the manslaughter conviction, although he had not been convicted in Iceland.