The ringleaders of a notorious U.K. grooming gang are taking advantage of a legal loophole that is preventing them from being deported to Pakistan, triggering a diplomatic standoff.
Adil Khan, 54, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 55, were jailed in the United Kingdom in 2012 for leading a group of nine men that sexually assaulted 47 girls, some as young as 12 years old. The men would get them high and drunk before sexually assaulting and eventually pimping them out.
Khan and Rauf were stripped of their British nationality after being found guilty of rape and trafficking. They tried to fight deportation but lost their cases in 2018. The men then tore up their Pakistani passports, renounced their citizenship, and essentially became “stateless.”
Their lawyers argued they have no country to be sent back to and must stay in the U.K. Pakistan has refused to accept the men, citing them as too dangerous.
Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary, wants the U.K. to up the stakes. In an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph, he called on Foreign Secretary David Lammy to “summon” Pakistan’s High Commissioner and “give them a week to take back these men.”
“If they don’t, visas should be immediately suspended for all Pakistanis wanting to come to the U.K.,” Jenrick wrote. “If they continue to refuse, aid should be suspended. It’s that simple.”
