Labour must stop handing millions to Pakistan while the country blocks the removal of child sex abusers from Britain, it was claimed last night.
Grooming gang ringleaders who raped and exploited dozens of young white girls in Rochdale and elsewhere cannot be deported because Islamabad has refused to accept them.
While countries cannot unilaterally send criminals back to their native lands, Pakistan receives millions in aid money from the UK each each year – amounting to more than £1 billion over the last decade.
Last night, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick called for the payments to stop and a visa ban to be implemented until the country starts cooperating.
‘It’s shameful that Pakistan is abusing our generosity and madness that the Government isn’t doing something about it,’ he said.
‘Perpetrators with dual nationality should be stripped of UK citizenship and kicked out of this country – no ifs, no buts.
‘If their country of origin won’t take them back, then the Government should use every lever to force them to do so.
‘These sick and twisted individuals should never set foot on British soil again.’
It is unknown how many UK-based criminals Pakistan has refused to accept because the Home Office has refused to release data on the abusers.
However, it is understood that Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, who exploited girls as young as 12 as part of a nine-strong gang during a two-year reign of terror, are among them.
Khan, now 54, who fathered a child with one 13-year-old victim, was convicted of child trafficking and jailed for eight years in May 2012.
Religious studies teacher Rauf, now 55, received six years for the same offence. The courts heard he asked a 15-year-victim if she had any younger friends, and would drive girls to other men who would use them for sex.
Khan served four years while Rauf served three and a half before being released on licence.
The pair were among four abusers who desperately tried to dodge deportation by renouncing their Pakistani citizenship, claiming that removal from the UK would leave them stateless.
However, immigration judges dismissed the tactic more than two years ago, saying it would be ‘relatively easy’ for them to regain their status back home.
Rejecting their appeals, Judges Charlotte Welsh and Judge Siew Ling Yoke said Khan had shown a ‘breathtaking lack of remorse’ and there was very strong public interest in the men being kicked out of the UK
Although their deportation orders were upheld, the individuals remain in this country, living and working alongside their victims.
Neighbours in Rochdale have said Rauf, who is understood to work for a takeaway delivery company, walks around ‘like he owns the place’.
One mum said: ‘Nobody can believe that monster is still here after what he did to those young girls.
‘I can’t believe he was delivering takeaways to peoples’ houses. Just imagine it – you are one of his victims and you open the door to get your meal and he’s there.
‘It’s disgusting. What is the country coming to? Why is he still here?’
In the case of Rauf and Khan, and possibly others, they remain in the UK because Pakistan has refused to take them back.
Mr Jenrick has previously called for foreign aid to be conditional on countries co-operating on returns.
Iraq, which has received more than £400 million in aid from the UK over the last 10 years, has only accepted 150 returns – despite accounting for nearly 15,000 Channel migrant crossings since 2018.
More than half a million has gone to Somalia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the last decade. While nearly 18,000 small boat arrivals have hailed from the countries, the UK successfully returned just 13 to Somalia in 2023.
Destination countries cannot unilaterally return criminals and failed asylum seekers, but must depend on origin states’ willingness to readmit them.
The US has long considered Pakistan ‘recalcitrant’, and in 2019 it sanctioned the country with visa restrictions and a reduction in aid payments.