Ed Miliband‘s attempts to deport the leader of the Rochdale caring gang came to nothing this week after that Pakistan refused to take him back.
Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told Mr Miliband at a meeting on Thursday that Pakistan would not accept Shabir Ahmed back because it was not legally obliged to do so.
Pakistani officials told their British counterparts that they “currently have no legislation or formal mechanism under which we could take him back.”
Ahmed, who was convicted of 30 child rape offences, was released in July this year after serving 14 years behind bars.
Although he has been stripped of his British citizenship, ministers face difficulties in deporting him because Commonwealth citizens who arrive in Britain before 1973 are protected from removal under archaic legislation.
Pakistan has long claimed that Ahmed, like him, is Britain’s responsibility long ago renounced his Pakistani citizenship and has spent almost his entire life in Britain.
Mr Miliband, who was made Foreign Secretary by Andy Burnham when he came to Number 10, urged Mr Dar to consider taking the criminal back to a meeting at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for the pair’s first meeting.
Ed Miliband’s attempts to deport the leader of the Rochdale grooming gang failed last week after Pakistan refused to take him back
Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told Mr Miliband at a meeting on Thursday that Pakistan would not accept Shabir Ahmed back because it was not legally obliged to do so.
Ahmed, who was convicted of 30 child rape offences, was released in July this year after serving 14 years behind bars
But sources told The Telegraph, which first reported the meeting, that a deal could only be reached if Britain extradited the Pakistani dissidents – a move the government is believed to be unlikely to agree to.
This comes as taxpayers are spending thousands of pounds to ensure Ahmed is monitored after he is released from prison.
The scammer is now subject to electronic tags and banned from entering certain areas in Oldham, where he lives, and Rochdale, where he committed many of his crimes.
He is also under 24-hour supervision in a bail hostel and is banned from contacting certain people.
Commenting on Mr Miliband’s failure to reach a deal with Pakistan, Reform UK Home Office spokesperson Zia Yusuf said: ‘Over the last twenty years the Tory and Labor governments have sent £6 billion of British taxpayers’ money in foreign aid to Pakistan in real terms.
“They have issued two million visas to Pakistani nationals. All in the name of ‘soft power’. Yet Pakistan will not even take back the Rochdale monster.
“They have betrayed the British people and will pay the price.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are pursuing every available lawful option, working with the Government of Pakistan, to deport this criminal.
‘We do not provide ongoing commentary on discussions.’
