Drug smuggler and kickboxing champ Karel Šroubek to be deported back to the Czech Republic

A convicted drug smuggler and former world kickboxing champion for New Zealand will be deported back to the Czech Republic in March.

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal declined Karel Šroubek's appeal to stay on humanitarian grounds in a decision released last month, following a hearing in September.

The tribunal found while there were exceptional humanitarian circumstances because of Šroubek's 19-year presence here, it was not unjust or unduly harsh for Šroubek to be deported from New Zealand, and it would be against the public interest to allow him to stay.

Šroubek said he feared for his safety if he was deported to his country of birth, where he witnessed a murder. His lawyer said there would be "no chance of a bright future", according to the tribunal's decision.

"He will be put in custody with serious criminals. He will be portrayed as a snitch ... making his circumstances in prison unimaginable."

Now in his 40s, Šroubek arrived in New Zealand in 2003 using a passport under the identity of Jan Antolik, while he was wanted by Czech authorities for not serving a four-and-a-half-year jail term. He had been charged over disorderly conduct, damaging property, and assaulting two police officers and a taxi driver.

Šroubek was cleared of further charges laid in New Zealand, including kidnapping and aggravated robbery, and was discharged without conviction on immigration offences when his false identity was discovered in 2011. However, in 2016 was jailed for importing five kilograms of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. He was paroled in 2020.

In 2018, while Šroubek was in jail, Immigration NZ began looking into whether he could be deported on the grounds that he was ineligible for a visa, and that he was allowed entry as a result of administrative error.

The case hit local headlines in 2018 when he was instead granted residence a second time - this time in his own name - by then-Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. After public outcry and a government review, Lees-Galloway reversed the decision and announced Šroubek's deportation.

Šroubek appealed this, first on the facts, and most recently on humanitarian grounds. However, in its latest decision the tribunal said he was liable for deportation because he was granted residence after concealing his Czech convictions and sentence.

"His presence here has been as a fugitive from justice," the decision read.

The primary reason for his presence in New Zealand was to avoid prosecution and serving the sentence imposed on him in Prague, the tribunal said.

"Weighing the administrative error that arose because of his concealment of his convictions and sentence (and therefore his status as an excluded person), against the exceptional humanitarian circumstances that arise from the length of time he has been here, the tribunal finds that it would not be unjust or unduly harsh for the appellant to be deported from New Zealand.

"The weight given to the length of time the appellant has spent in New Zealand must be assessed in light of the reason for the appellant's presence here."

A three-month delay was allowed for Šroubek to get his affairs in order before being deported.