Rochdale sex grooming gang 'urgent' deportation call

(Clockwise from top left) Shabir Ahmed, Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan, Abdul Rauf face deportation to Pakistan

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been asked to take "urgent action" and deport four members of a grooming gang who abused girls in Rochdale.

Tony Lloyd, the town's MP, said "victims deserve better".

Shabir Ahmed, 66, Abdul Rauf, 50, Abdul Aziz, 48 and Adil Khan, 49, who have dual UK-Pakistani citizenship, were among nine men jailed in 2012 for exploiting girls as young as 12.

The Home Office will not say whether a decision has been made to deport them.

'Really distressing'

Ahmed, who was known as "Daddy" in the gang, is still serving a 22-year jail term for rape.

In August 2018, Aziz, Khan and Rauf lost an appeal against being stripped of their British citizenship.

Ahmed, Rauf, Aziz, and Khan, lost a previous battle to keep British citizenship in February 2017.

Some vulnerable girls in Rochdale were plied with drinks and drugs by groomers

Mr Lloyd is calling on Mr Javid to explain why the four have not yet been deported and has tabled a motion in parliament.

He said: "These crimes were at the most serious level and victims deserve better.

"I would ask Sajid Javid to take urgent action. I want them to be deported."

He said the public would be "bewildered" and added: "People are still angry."

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been asked to explain why the men have not been deported

Maggie Oliver, who quit Greater Manchester Police and turned whistleblower, said victims had been "failed again and again and again" but they expected "very, very little from the authorities".

She said they saw their abusers on a "fairly regular basis" and it was "really distressing" and "disgraceful".

Police said as many as 47 girls were groomed for two years from 2008.

They were plied with alcohol and drugs, and gang-raped in rooms above takeaways, and taken by taxis to different flats where cash was paid to use the girls.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases."

The Home Office has been approached for comment.