Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester call for Rochdale grooming gang deportations to be completed

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester have renewed calls for the Rochdale grooming gang members to be deported.

In August 2018, Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf – all of Rochdale – lost an appeal to avoid being deported, and it was announced they would be stripped of their British citizenship. The paedophiles were told they would face deportation as a result of their abhorrent crimes, targeting vulnerable underaged girls.

 

Read more: These paedophiles still walk streets of Rochdale - despite losing 2018 appeal to avoid being deportedPublished: 09 April 2021
Chris Clarkson MP urges Home Secretary to deport members of Rochdale grooming gang as "matter of urgency"Published: 21 May 2020

 

Earlier this week, it was revealed at an immigration tribunal hearing in London that Abdul Aziz, who took over the role as ringleader from Shabir Ahmed, has avoided deportation after renouncing his Pakistani nationality – just days before the Court of Appeal ruled he could be stripped of his UK citizenship.

Adil Khan and Abdul Qari Rauf, who have also appealed deportation, renounced their Pakistani citizenship just months later in September 2018.

 

Read more: Grooming gang trio to lose British citizenshipPublished: 08 August 2018

 

Khan and Rauf claim deportation would interfere with their human rights, says the BBC.

Aziz, Khan and Rauf had previously been convicted in 2012 of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and trafficking a child within the UK and respectively sentenced to nine, eight and six years in prison.

A decision on deportation is expected later this year.

Now the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester have called for their deportation despite the ‘legal loophole’.

In a joint statement, they said: “We are horrified that the ringleaders of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale, who were convicted for their heinous crimes, have used a legal loophole by renouncing their Pakistani nationality to avoid being deported.

“We are now in a situation where these men, having lost an appeal to avoid deportation in 2018, might have a chance of never being deported and be allowed to carry on with their lives in the very areas where they carried out their abuse.

“Victims have been forgotten in all this and we are appalled that the Home Secretary, who has had years to do right by them, has so far failed to deport. All her tough talk on deportations rings hollow when it comes to the perpetrators of child abuse.

“Despite our many representations to her, she failed to inform us that a court hearing challenging the deportation order was on-going. In so doing, she demonstrates how little concern she has for the local community who are understandably upset and angry about what is happening.

“We call on the Home Secretary to do everything within her and the government’s power to get the right outcome for the victims. Justice will finally be seen to be fully served only once these deportations are complete and only then will the community be able to begin to heal.”