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London shop-worker held at detention centre awaiting deportation after 27 years in UK

Stojan Jankovic was arrested without warning despite having worked in Britain for years

Benjamin Kentish

Saturday 01 April 2017 00:05 BST

Stojan Jankovic is being held at a detention centre in Dorset while he faces deportation from the UK (Getty)

A shop-worker who has lived in Britain for 27 years is facing deportation after being detained by immigration officers.

Stojan Jankovic, 52, has worked at Earth Natural Foods in Camden, London for 15 years but is currently being held at a detention centre in Dorset while officials attempt to remove him from the country.

Mr Jankovic arrived in the UK in 1991 from the then Republic of Yugoslavia, but his application for asylum is understood to have been refused.

It is believed his leave to remain in the country expired in 1999 but he has been working and paying taxes since then without encountering any problems.

Mr Jankovic's boss, John Grayson, described him to the Camden New Journal as “kindly, avuncular, cheerful [and] reliable".

“I don’t think he’s had a day off sick in the 15 years he’s worked for us”, he added.

“This has been his home and his work and his community for the last 27 years. He’s known to hundreds if not thousands of people in Kentish Town as the bloke with a beard that serves in our shop.”

Anne Hall, a local resident who has known Mr Jankovic for 15 years, said: “He was very special. He was always so lovely. He is a very educated, peace-loving man. I just can’t believe it, I think we’re becoming a police state.”

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

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1/20The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Digital Economy Bill

• Give every household the legal right to fast broadband – but if they live in some remote areas, they’ll have to pay part of the cost themselves

• Phone and broadband companies to be forced to release details of customer complaints and average broadband speeds

• New powers to allow public bodies like councils and government department to share swathes of data – including unpaid bills

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Transport Bill

• New laws to govern the development of driverless cars, drones and space planes which the Government hopes will encourage investment in the new technologies to take place in the UK

• Making it legal for customers to buy insurance for driverless vehicles

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 4/5

This content is subject to copyright.

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Planning Bill

• Giving legal powers to villages and towns to set their own priorities for new housing. They won’t be able to turn down new homes, but they will have a say in where they can be built

• Create a new National Infrastructure Commission to push through big projects such as nuclear power stations and new rail and road links – cutting the amount of time it takes to develop them

Controversy Rating: 3/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Jobs Bill

• Give powers to local authorities to reduce the level of business rates they charge. City Mayors would also be able to increase rates in some areas to pay for specific infrastructure projects to that would boost local growth

Controversy Rating: 2/5

Change Britain Rating: 2/5

This content is subject to copyright.

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Markets Bill

• Making it easier for consumers to switch electricity and gas suppliers

• Cutting down the time it takes for the Competition and Markets Authority to launch investigations into uncompetitive practices

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Bus Services Bill

• Give local authorities and mayors powers to set standards for local buses – including frequency of services and fairs

• Force all bus companies to provide real time information on services to app developers so everyone across the country will have the same ability as Londoners to know when the next bus is coming on their smart phone

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

2007 Getty Images

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

NHS Overseas Charging Bill

• Increasing the number of services for which the NHS charges foreign patients

• Reduces the number of people from the European Economic Area who are eligible for free services

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 1/5

2016 Getty Images

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Pensions Bill

• Capping early exit fees on company pension schemes

• Create a new pensions guidance body to help consumers know their pension rights – and make best use of previous Government reforms allowing pensioners the right to take the money they have saved in a lump sum on retirement to invest how they like

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Children and Social Work Bill

• New obligation on councils to be a ‘corporate parent’ to children in care and look after them even after they have grown up

• Giving all children leaving care a personal advisor to help them find jobs, secure a home and deal with any problems

• Create a new regulator for social work along the lines of Ofsted to drive up standards in the profession

Controversy Rating: 2/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Education Bill

• Force failing local authorities to convert all the schools in their area to academies

• Reform school funding to address long standing disparities across the country that has disadvantaged schools in some rural areas

Controversy Rating: 3/5

Change Britain Rating: 2/5

2015 Getty Images

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Higher Education Bill

• Making it simpler and easier for companies and other providers to set up new universities around the country. Ministers want to encourage institutions like Harvard and companies like Google to consider setting up campuses in the UK

• Allowing universities who have been rated "excellent" for teaching to charge more than those who are not

• Law to force universities to publish information about their application processes broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio economic background

Controversy Rating: 2/5

Change Britain Rating: 4/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Prisons and Courts Bill

• New law to create ‘reform prisons’ giving governors powers to set their own regimes and budgets

• Obligation to publish re-offending rates by prison

Controversy Rating: 2/5

Change Britain Rating: 4/5

2016 Getty Images

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

National Citizen Service Bill

• New law to force schools to promote NCS to all 16 year olds and putting the scheme for the first time on a statutory footing

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Lifetime Savings Bill

• Putting into law a Government plans to give people on working tax credits who save £50 a month a Government "bonus" of £50 up to a maximum of £300 a year

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 2/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Soft Drinks Industry Levy Bill

• Introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks to fund school sports

Controversy Rating: 3/5

Change Britain Rating: 5/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Bill of Rights

• A new bill of rights to replace the Human Rights Act that will be based on the European Convention of Human Rights but will also take account of English common law

Controversy Rating: 5/5

Change Britain Rating: 4/5

This content is subject to copyright.

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Counter-Extremism Bill

• New civil powers to allow authorities to ban so-called "extremist preachers"

• New powers to intervene in Madrassas and other unregulated environments where children are present

• New undisclosed powers to come out of Louise Casey’s review of Muslim integration

Controversy Rating: 5/5

Change Britain Rating: 4/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Criminal Finances Bill

• Make it an offence for companies not to stop their staff facilitating tax evasion

• New undisclosed powers for courts to recover criminal assets

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 1/5

2016 Getty Images

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Cultural Property Bill (Armed Forces)

• Making it illegal for UK troops to damage cultural property in conflicts at home or abroad

Controversy Rating: 1/5

Change Britain Rating: 1/5

The government’s legislative programme for 2016-17

Wales Bill

• Bill to put plans for further Welsh devolution on a statutory footing – following the new powers recently given to the Scottish Parliament

Controversy Rating: 2/5

Change Britain Rating: 3/5

Mr Jankovic was arrested when he attended his weekly appointment at an immigration reporting centre on Thursday.

“He’s done that once a month for ten years, just so they know where he is”, Mr Grayson said. “Yesterday, with no warning, they didn’t let him go and bundled him into a back of a van. It was totally out of the blue, from his point of view and ours."

Asked what had changed to warrant his employees' arrest, Mr Grayson said: “The Tories took over, that’s what’s happened. Discretion has gone out the window and the Home Office can do whatever they want.”

Mr Jankovic’s MP, Keir Starmer, has asked the Home Office to delay his deportation in order to allow time for a full legal challenge.

The Home Office does not comment on individual cases.

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