Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang that abused girls as young as 12, walked free from prison this week – but his release has sparked a frantic government effort to deport him to Pakistan.
Ahmed was convicted in 2012 for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences. He held dual British-Pakistani citizenship, but his UK passport was stripped after his conviction. Yet when his victims were told this week that Ahmed could not be removed from the UK, the reason was a 55-year-old law: the Immigration Act 1971 bars the deportation of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived before 1973 and had lived in the country for five years. Ahmed came to the UK in the late 1960s.
“PM Starmer orders review after law bars deportation of Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has asked the home secretary to review the case after calls for the law to be changed. Andy Burnham, widely expected to replace Starmer as prime minister this month, was among those demanding Ahmed be deported.
“We have raised this issue with our counterparts in Islamabad,” a No 10 spokesperson said. “We are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders, and we’re clear that they should have no place in this country. … We are currently working across government to explore all possible options in this case.” The spokesperson added that the case was “clearly a complex case with implications beyond this specific incident”.
Ahmed left prison on Thursday and is now in 24-hour staffed accommodation, wearing a GPS electronically monitored tag. The Home Office has said any breach of his strict licence conditions would result in him being immediately returned to prison. But some of his victims said they were “frightened” by his release and felt “unsafe”.
The UK government is considering whether the 1971 law could be changed through an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill currently passing through Parliament. But even if legislative hurdles are cleared, the diplomatic challenge of getting Pakistan to agree to accept Ahmed remains. “As previous governments have found, this necessarily involves the agreement of the receiving country – which has not always been possible,” the spokesperson noted.
For the victims, the uncertainty is agonising. While the government explores “all possible options”, Ahmed remains in the country, tagged but free.