The government of Pakistan has flatly rejected British attempts to deport Shabir Ahmed, the freed ringleader of a Rochdale child grooming gang, as it emerged that the UK has signed off £153m in foreign aid for Islamabad.
Ahmed, who came to Britain in the late 1960s and was stripped of his UK passport after his 2012 conviction for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls as young as 12, was released on licence this month after serving 22 years. He was the head of a gang of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at two takeaway restaurants.
“Pakistan refuses to take back Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed as UK gives £153m aid.”
Under the Immigration Act 1971, Ahmed cannot be removed because he is a Commonwealth citizen who arrived before 1973 and has lived in the UK for five years. The Home Office has acknowledged that any deportation depends on Pakistan accepting him. Downing Street insisted on Thursday that it was still in talks with Islamabad, but Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made its position clear.
Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for the ministry, told the BBC: “The government of Pakistan has no connection whatsoever with this matter. The individual concerned is a British national who spent his entire adult life in the UK and was duly convicted by a British court for reprehensible offences committed on British soil.”
Andrabi added: “Any decision regarding his release, supervision of usual legal status, falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of the competent British authorities and must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom.” He said Ahmed’s “heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than the quest to search for extraneous causes.”
The UK government has proposed amending the 1971 Act so that foreign criminals guilty of serious crimes no longer benefit from its protections. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this week that the Act “should not be used as a bar against removal in cases like that of Shabir Ahmed”. But even if the law changes, Ahmed’s removal still requires Pakistan’s consent.
The standoff has been further inflamed by revelations that the UK has signed off £153m in foreign aid for Pakistan. The sum has prompted questions about whether Britain should continue such payments while Pakistan refuses to take back a convicted child rapist. The question now is whether the government will use the aid as leverage — or whether Ahmed will remain free in Britain.
