Deporting the Rochdale ringleader isn’t the answer

Shabana Mahmood is looking to change the law so the Rochdale grooming gang ringleader, British-Pakistani Shabir Ahmed, can be deported.

In 2012, Ahmed was jailed for 22 years following the rape, abuse and trafficking of over 50 girls, after the Rochdale case was finally uncovered. 

Almost 14 years on, however, Ahmed has recently been released on license and is now in 24 hour staffed accommodation, wearing a GPS electronically monitored tag.

People are understandably furious to know this man has served just over half of his sentence and is no longer in jail, and the Home Secretary has arrived at a ludicrous solution. 

She is seeking to amend the 1971 Immigration Act, which currently bars the removal of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived before 1973, as Ahmed had. 

It goes without saying that Ahmed should be punished for his crimes, and it’s important that whatever happens he is never allowed to harm another person. 

But deportation is not the answer.

Not only because I disagree with a lot of the narrative around deportation but because he shouldn’t have to be. Britain should be able to deal with him, and anyone like him.

He, and anyone who commits crimes like his, should stay in prison forever.

On top of everything, Pakistan has no intention of taking him back, so this feels even more like a red herring, portraying the abuse of women and girls as an external problem, something that came to our shores from far away and needs to be removed.

Sending Ahmed away, then wiping our hands of him and carrying on as if nothing happened will not bring sufficient justice to the victims.

This man had British citizenship – his crimes happened on British soil, thanks to the failings of British institutions. 

We need to look to understand why Britain let this sexual abuse thrive.

It feels to me like Home Secretary Mahmood is hoping to create a distraction to move on from this high profile case, and the fact this man was ever released in the first place. 

But Ahmed isn’t the only perpetrator, and British-Pakistani’s aren’t the problem.

I remember hearing about this case over a decade ago – I was in my late 20s, and was horrified as more and more started to come out about what happened.

Nine British-Pakistani men were arrested for targeting underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester for a sex-trafficking ring. And the leader of this horrific gang was Shabir Ahmed.

This led to further investigations by the Greater Manchester police and as of October 2025 a total of sixty one men had been convicted and jailed in relation to sex offenses.

This problem is bigger than one man – and one (almost certainly unsuccessful) deportation won’t solve it. 

If sixty one others were convicted for sex trafficking in Rochdale, then the problem is far from Ahmed, it’s the toxic space that these men were allowed to thrive in.

It was here that his British citizenship was stripped, making him seem like a ‘Pakistani problem’. 

But stripping someone of their citizenship doesn’t expunge the country of their responsibility.

The others received between 4 and 12 years – which to many is seen as a miscarriage of justice. These men should have been imprisoned for a lot longer than they were.

The proven reoffending rates for those committing sexual offenses are lower than for people with non-sexual convictions – but some people are beyond redemption, and I believe that applies to people like Ahmed. 

Earlier this week, survivors of grooming gangs even wrote to MPs asking them to stop sexual offenders from receiving early prison release.

A mother of one of the late victims of the Rochdale gang has said ‘Now, we are being asked to live with the fear that those people who harmed us may come back into the community sooner than we ever thought.’

It feels like the law needs to change in the courts instead of in immigration – if sexual violence was taken more seriously and the punishment matched the crime, we wouldn’t be faced with the problem we now do.

And while he sits in a different cell, awaiting his judgment, Pakistan and Britain are at odds as to where he belongs.

The reality is that he belongs in jail forever.

A No 10 spokeswoman said that ‘Ahmed’s horrific crimes were at the heart of the grooming gangs scandal that represents one of the darkest moments in our country’s history.’

If it was the darkest moments, then he shouldn’t be back on our streets. None of them should.

Pakistan has said, over and over again – they will not take any of these men back, and we are avoiding our own problems by using deportation as the solution.

I say we look at our criminal justice system, instead of our immigration law.

This feels like a stunt.

We need real solutions.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@usnewsrank.com. 

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