Government officials are in talks with Pakistan about taking back a Rochdale grooming gang ringleader, Downing Street has said.
Shabir Ahmed, 73, who has been stripped of his British citizenship leaving him with only Pakistani nationality, cannot be deported due to a 1971 law that forbids the removal of a small group of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.
Reports have also suggested Pakistan might not accept Ahmed because he had previously renounced his citizenship.
Asked about the Government’s progress on the case, a No 10 spokeswoman said: “We have raised this issue with our counterparts in Islamabad and 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.
“As previous governments have found, this necessarily involves the agreement of the receiving country – which has not always been possible – but we are currently working across Government to explore all possible options in this case.”
She continued: “We’re absolutely clear that where foreign nationals commit offences in the UK we will do everything in our power to remove them, and that is why in this particular awful case, the Prime Minister has asked the Home Secretary to consider what can be done to remove this individual from the UK.
“This is clearly a complex case with implications beyond this specific incident.”
Ahmed, known to his victims as “Daddy”, was released from prison on Thursday after serving 14 years since his conviction in 2012 for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls.
The Conservatives have said they will attempt to amend the Government’s Immigration and Asylum Bill “to close the loophole”, with leader Kemi Badenoch has urged ministers to back them.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Government should consider cutting foreign aid to Pakistan if it refuses to take Ahmed back.
He told GB News: “If a British citizen commits a criminal offence somewhere else or is in another country illegally, of course, we take back our own citizens.
“So we expect other countries, like Pakistan, to do the same when the boot is on the other foot.
“If they don’t do that, we should be cutting all foreign aid to those countries that don’t accept back their own citizens, and we should be imposing what I call visa sanctions.”
Ahmed is understood to have been freed on licence and told he must initially live at a bail hostel which is staffed 24 hours and wear an electronic GPS tag.
He will not be allowed at his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham and is subject to an “exclusion zone” meaning he cannot go to parts of Rochdale.
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.
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