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UK plans law change to deport grooming gang leader after prison release
The government says it will amend the Immigration and Asylum Bill to give the Home Secretary new authority to override a 1971 rule that has blocked deportations for Commonwealth nationals who arrived before 1973.
UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood announced plans to change the UK’s immigration law to allow deportation of Shabir Ahmed, the convicted leader of a so called grooming gang, after his release from prison earlier this month under the country’s early release program, Agence France Presse reports via SCMP Economy.
Mahmood said Ahmed was jailed in 2012 for 22 years for multiple child sexual offences including rape, and that he lost British citizenship following his conviction, leaving him with Pakistani nationality.
The proposed change, to be delivered through an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill currently in parliament, would create a new power for the Home Secretary to disapply Section 7 of the Immigration Act 1971 for serious criminals.
Mahmood also said the amendment is aimed at enabling the deportation of “the vilest foreign criminals,” citing that the existing 1971 law has prevented removal of Commonwealth nationals who arrived in Britain before 1973.