Grenada has deported a Pakistani national after he was deemed to be a “national security threat”.
Solicitor General Dwight Horsford said Muhammad Ehsan was deported last month after an effort to halt the move by his lawyers.
“He was deemed a national security threat as a result of due diligence and the Minister for Immigration signed the deportation order but his lawyer filed application to take the matter to court and so the deportation was put on hold awaiting the outcome of the hearing,” Horsford said.
Horsford would not disclose the “security threat’ Ehsan posed to the country, saying “the reason was argued in court.
“The matter was heard “in chamber off camera,” he added.
Ehsan whose family operates a restaurant with outlets in St George’s and Grand Anse arrived in Grenada about seven years ago and was married a Grenada woman. They had no children.
He became qualified to obtain Grenadian citizenship through marriage and then proceeded to apply for his Grenadian passport.
The authorities explained however that while conducting due diligence on his application for the passport, the investigating officers were provided with information that “was deem as a national security threat.
“That application was denied, so he was never provided with a Grenadian passport but because he married to the Grenadian, the law provided for him to be granted his citizenship. That citizenship is what was revoked by Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell who is also the Minister for Immigration,” said one official, who asked not to be named.
“While at the airport awaiting to be deported, his family had contacted an attorney who filed an emergency application seeking the court to stay the deportation and it was granted. So, for that weekend of April 21, he remained in Grenada,” the official added.
Horsford said that while a deportation order can be challenged in the court, the law provides for the Minister for Immigration to sign a deportation order to be executive by law enforcement.
Horsford said the presiding judge lifted the “stop order” to the deportation.
Former attorney general Rohan Philip said that he had filed a constitutional motion on behalf of his client, but a date was not provided for a hearing.
“Our argument is that as a Grenadian citizen some of his constitutional rights were violated while enforcing the deportation order, that is why the constitutional motion was filed,” Phillip said. – CMC
