A man who brought his baby niece to the UK from a French refugee camp after she sustained serious burns has been released from detention and reunited with his family.

Najat Ibrahim Ismail, 32, an Iraqi Kurd, faced three attempts by the Home Office to put him on a plane to Iraq in recent weeks. He is married to a British woman, Emma Ismail, and has three young British children, including a 10-year-old son who has autism.

Ismail was prosecuted for assisting unlawful immigration into an EU member state after bringing his niece, Rwen Tahsin Ibrahim, then seven months old, and other family members to the UK in January 2016 in what he says was an attempt to save the girl’s life.

Deportation halted for man who brought injured niece to UK Read more

Ismail went to the Grande-Synthe refugee camp in Dunkirk, where his brother Tahsin Ibrahim was staying with his family after fleeing Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq. He discovered the baby had sustained 50% burns after falling into an open fire in the camp.

His relatives travelled on false documents obtained in the camp and were granted refugee status after reaching the UK. Rwen received treatment in the UK and has made a good recovery.

All three attempts to deport Ismail were halted minutes before the flights were due to take off. Before the most recent deportation attempt Ismail’s lawyers lodged an emergency appeal, and an order was granted by Lord Justice Davis halting the removal.

The order stated: “One cannot … at this stage entirely rule out the possibility that the secretary of state might have erred [in ordering the deportation]”. Davis said that allowing Ismail’s removal would “determine the matter without it having been fully considered”.

Ismail was returned to immigration detention but on Friday the Home Office released him and he returned to his wife and three children in Portsmouth.

“I am so happy to be back with my wife and kids,” said Ismail. “On Friday, in detention, I was told the Home Office wanted to see me. I thought they were going to try to put me on a plane again. I didn’t believe them when they said they were going to release me. I thought they were trying to trick me. The Home Office kept me locked up for two months and 19 days.”

Emma Ismail said: “It’s fantastic to be a family again. My daughter couldn’t stop crying when she was reunited with her dad. My son asked me: ‘Why is my heart beating so fast?’”

The Home Office had been seeking to deport Ismail after he was convicted at Portsmouth crown court and sentenced to 24 months in jail.

The judge at his trial criticised him for the element of planning in the offence, but said: “I do accept that you were not a person who was trafficking for gain. These were family members you decided to assist.”

Ismail arrived in the UK in 2004 after fleeing torture in Iraq. He was granted indefinite leave to remain and settled in Portsmouth.

His solicitor, Hannah Baynes at Duncan Lewis, said: “We are very pleased Najat has now been released from immigration detention back to his wife and children in Portsmouth. Now Najat’s three British children can spend the school half-term holiday with their father at home rather than visiting their father in detention.

“Whilst we are still deeply concerned about the impact of detention and three removal attempts on Najat’s mental health, we are delighted that his right to liberty has finally been acknowledged by the Home Office. We hope that this will be the last time that Najat experiences immigration detention.

Under Home Office rules, any foreign national who has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more is automatically liable for deportation, although “compelling circumstances” are considered.

The Home Office said: “All foreign nationals given a custodial sentence are considered for removal and we have removed more than 48,000 foreign national offenders since 2010.

“The health and welfare of those in immigration detention is of the utmost importance, which is why we have trained medical staff on hand to provide medical care to those in detention.”