UK enacts law change to deport grooming gang leader to Pakistan

London, Jul 14 (PTI) Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has set a law change in motion in the UK Parliament that will remove the legal hurdle blocking the deportation of a grooming gang ringleader to Pakistan.  The case of Shabir Ahmed, jailed in 2012 on multiple charges of rape and sexual offences against young girls and recently released from prison, triggered an outcry when it emerged that the Pakistani man is protected under a 1971 law forbidding the removal of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK over 50 years ago.  The convicted rapist was the ringleader of a group of nine men who groomed and sexually abused teenage girls. The men’s modus operandi was to gain the trust of their victims by offering takeaway food and cigarettes, later plying them with alcohol before raping them.    Mahmood told the House of Commons on Monday evening that she was taking action in response to the widely reported case of the “vile grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed”.  “Our amendment will provide the Home Secretary with a new power to disapply Section 7 of the Immigration Act 1971 for serious criminals," Mahmood told MPs.  “This provides protections for long-term UK residents but, clearly, should not be acting as a bar against removal in cases like that of Shabir Ahmed.  “The threshold for this power would be tied to the power to deprive citizenship, which applies only in cases of exceptional severity," she said.  The Labour MP, of South Asian heritage, admitted that the legal measures alone would not guarantee Ahmed's removal from the country.  According to reports, Pakistan has declined to accept the criminal back into its country, and some back-channel negotiations have allegedly focussed on his return being tied with the extradition of so-called Pakistani dissidents based in Britain.  “It is important to note this does not guarantee his removal from this country. As those opposite [Conservative Party] know all too well from their own experience,” Mahmood said in Parliament.  “The Foreign Secretary [Yvette Cooper] and I continue to work all avenues to pursue a deportation. I know the thoughts of everyone here are with the victims and survivors of this vile criminal,” she said.  Her statement formed part of a wider set of measures announced under the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which the Home Secretary said would make the country’s processes fairer for genuine refugees and act speedily to remove those who enter illegally.  The proposal to deport Shabir Ahmed, now being electronically tracked through a GPS tag while housed in a monitored accommodation since his release from prison, has cross-party support.  The Opposition Tories have demanded speedier action against the "vile gang rapist who should be deported back to Pakistan”.  “I would only ask the Home Secretary not to do that by amending this Bill, which will probably take a year or so to reach the statute book. I hope that she will consider doing it instead through emergency legislation in September, which could be completed in a couple of weeks,” Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, responded in the Commons.  Other MPs also called for similar fast-track action against an “evil and abhorrent” criminal whose sexual abuse and exploitation of young girls in Oldham and Rochdale shook the towns in northern England.  “The fact is this: he has already been stripped of his British citizenship. He has no right to be here, bar the loophole in the Immigration Act 1971 that will now be closed thanks to the actions of our Home Secretary," said Oldham MP Jim McMahon.  “I know that this is just the start, and that even once the law is changed, Pakistan may still say that it will refuse to take back this man. Whatever diplomatic barriers exist must be challenged, and every possible avenue must be explored," demanded Rochdale MP Paul Waugh.  Andy Burnham, now on course to succeed Keir Starmer as Britain’s new Prime Minister by next week, has also been leading calls for the deportation. The grooming gang scandal, which rocked Greater Manchester, falls within Burnham's patch as the region’s former mayor.    “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first. I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table," he said recently.  Ahmed, a 73-year-old dual national who it emerged during trial was known as "Daddy" by his victims,  was stripped of his British citizenship when he was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment by a UK court.  However, a Probation Service letter informing victims of his release after completing his stipulated custodial sentence revealed that as per the UK’s Immigration Act 1971 any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973 and had been here for at least five years cannot be deported.   According to reports, the British government remains in talks with Pakistan to deport two other gang members, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, who were also stripped of their British citizenship in 2022. In their case, the duo has resorted to the European Convention on Human Rights article related to the right to family life to avoid being deported.  Under her new bill, Mahmood has also tabled measures that aim to tighten this appeals avenue used by convicted criminals to obstruct deportation. 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