Suspected ISIS fighter claimed asylum in UK – fights deportation over ‘pins and needles’

A suspected ISIS fighter who claimed asylum in Britain is reportedly battling against deportation over anxiety and “pins and needles”. Layth Ibrahim Mohammed, 39, was allegedly linked to the jihadist militant group, which seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in the mid-2010s.

Mr Mohammed is alleged to have built booby-trap bombs and to have taught the offspring of ISIS jihadis, according to The Sun. He travelled to the UK on a small boat across the English Channel in August 2025.

After his arrival, Mr Mohammed was housed in a hotel in Oldham, Greater Manchester, funded by the Home Office. Officers from the National Crime Agency detained him at the hotel over allegations levelled against him in Germany.

Mr Mohammed is fighting against extradition to that country to face terror charges and an allegation of rape. His case raises questions over how a suspected terrorist was able to enter the UK undetected.

His lawyer, Joanna Curtis, is reported to have told a hearing in London that deporting him would be inhumane because of his mental health issues and due to his suffering from “pins and needles”.

She said: “He has significant mental health issues, including severe anxiety as well as depression.”

Ms Curtis explained that his trauma stemmed from a bomb attack which killed his son while he was living in Iraq. Judges will decide on whether or not to extradite him on November 3, according to The Sun.

News of the case comes after MPs debated cross Channel migrant arrivals in the Commons as politicians returned to Parliament on Monday (October 12) after conference season. Recorded Channel crossings are at their lowest since 2021, with 20,935 arrivals so far this year.

Reform UK’s treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to send the Royal Navy to the Channel and “shut down the entire asylum system farce”. The PM dismissed his suggestions, telling the Commons: “I can remember a time when (Mr Jenrick) stood up in this House and made serious proposals. Sadly, not today.

“If he checked the facts recently, he will see that small boat crossings are coming down under this Government. When he was immigration minister, what did they do? They went up and up and up.”

The figure for Channel crossings at this stage in 2023 when Mr Jenrick was the Conservative immigration minister was 25,931. Mr Jenrick called for the Prime Minister to declare a national security emergency, because there is a gaping hole in Britain’s borders right now.

Conservative former minister Dame Caroline Dinenage warned migrants had begun arriving on Hampshire’s shores, more than 100 miles west of the narrowest Channel crossing point near Dover in Kent. Dame Caroline, the MP for Gosport in Hampshire, asked Mr Burnham what conversations were happening with France to try and shut down routes from Normandy.

Mr Burnham replied that people arranging small boats for migrants were “changing their tactics” because the Government’s co-operation with France had been a “success”. He also told the Commons: “We will be relentless in changing (our tactics) to make sure that they don’t succeed.”

He added: “It’s precisely because we are succeeding in reducing the number of boat crossings that they are having to try different routes.”