Pakistan refuses to take back grooming gang ringleader

Pakistan is refusing to accept the ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang, it is understood, despite plans to change to British law to allow him to be deported.

Shabir Ahmed – who served 14 years in jail for multiple rapes and sexual abuse against young girls – was released from prison last week. At the time, the government said he could not be deported due to a 55-year-old law, despite him already being stripped of his British citizenship.

Next week, the home secretary is expected to announce changes to the Immigration Act 1971 act to close the loophole which meant he could not be returned to Pakistan.

However, it is understood that Pakistan is currently refusing to accept Ahmed and is demanding the extradition of two political dissidents from the UK in order to do so.

A No 10 spokesperson earlier this week confirmed it has raised the issue with officials in Islamabad.

Under the Immigration Act 1971, those who arrived in the UK before 1973 and lived in the UK for at least five years before their deportation was considered cannot be removed from the country, which is the case for Ahmed.

It is not clear whether plans to close the loophole will come under separate fast-tracked legislation or as an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which is due to be debated in the Commons on Monday.

A Home Office minister indicated earlier this week that the government could consider emergency legislation.

Speaking to LBC last week, Labour minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said Ahmed was one of a “small number” of people who came to the UK from Commonwealth countries 50 years ago, whom the law prevents from being deported.

Baroness Smith also suggested Pakistan had refused to take Ahmed, saying there was “work that needs to happen” to persuade the country to accept him if he is deported.

She said: “We’re doing everything we can, looking at every route to get this guy out of the country.”

Victims have shared their fears following his release, with one, identified only as “Ruby”, saying she is scared for her own safety and that of her kids.

Ruby, who is being supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, set up by an ex-police detective turned whistleblower over grooming gangs, said: “The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, so even if he’s not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe.”

In a statement issued through the foundation, Ruby said victims of abuse had been given “false promises” and left to “fend for themselves” through a lack of support from the authorities, and called for a change in the law to get grooming gang members deported.

Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012 as one of nine men convicted of offences against five girls.