A Kosovan woman with 13 convictions for 29 offences has been allowed to remain in the UK after an immigration tribunal ruled that deporting her would be “unduly harsh” under human rights law.
Barbara Osmanovic, 40, arrived in Britain with her family as a child in 2000 and was granted leave to remain in 2006. Her offending began “almost immediately”, the tribunal heard.
The Home Office sought to deport her in 2023 because of her persistent criminality, but an immigration tribunal found that she was “socially and culturally integrated into the UK”. A subsequent appeal by the Home Office was rejected.
Osmanovic, who is of Roma heritage and addicted to heroin and cocaine, was jailed for two and a half years in Manchester in April 2023 for theft, fraud, attempted burglary and possession of a knife.
The court heard that she had carried out a “mean” campaign targeting vulnerable and disabled people. In one incident, she approached a woman in a wheelchair, stole her purse and a photograph of her parents, and spent £1,640 using her bank card.
She also stole a purse from an elderly woman shopping at Marks and Spencer, attempted to break into another woman’s home and was found carrying a knife when searched in a car park at a Premier Inn.
Although she had worked briefly in cleaning roles at Poundland, B&M and Manchester City Stadium in Birmingham and Manchester, the tribunal was told there was no evidence she had made a “positive contribution” to life in the UK.
The tribunal nevertheless ruled that returning her to Kosovo would cause exceptional difficulties. Osmanovic does not speak Albanian, has no meaningful support network and would struggle to obtain the documents needed to access healthcare, it heard.
The judge said she was likely to become homeless and, as a Roma woman with deformed feet and mental health problems, would “face significant difficulties obtaining the documentation necessary to reside lawfully and access healthcare”.
It was also considered “too soon” to establish whether she was no longer a persistent offender. Despite her criminality and “chaotic lifestyle”, the judge concluded that she remained “socially and culturally integrated into the UK”.
Osmanovic did not attend her appeal because she did not have a working phone and her solicitors were unable to contact her.
Her lawyer told the tribunal in 2023 that she had a “sorry history of offending”, while claiming that the “meanest” theft and fraud offences resulted from her dependence on Class A drugs.
