Rochdale sex offenders claim deportation would 'interfere with their human rights'

TWO Rochdale sex offenders have told a tribunal that deporting them from the UK would interfere with their human rights, according to a report.

Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Rauf, 52, have said that an alleged ringleader had avoided being deported so it would be wrong to deport them, the BBC reported.

Abdul Aziz, 51, known as 'the master' by the gang, had previously been told he will not be deported by the Home Office. They were among nine gang members jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of serious child sex offences in Rochdale.

The tribunal heard how all three were liable to be deprived of UK citizenship and deported as they also held Pakistani nationality.

Besides, the then-home secretary Theresa May ruled it would be "conducive to the public good".

According to the report, the men have fought a long legal battle against deportation, mounting multiple legal challenges and appeals, spanning several years.

Aziz had renounced his Pakistani citizenship on 13 July, 2018, six years after he was jailed, but just days before the Court of Appeal ruled he could be deprived of his UK citizenship.

Rauf and Khan only renounced their Pakistani citizenship in September of the same year after the Court of Appeal ruling.

At the hearing, lawyers for Rauf said that the law demands a consistency of treatment and although Rauf could regain his Pakistani nationality simply by signing a form, he refuses to do so because he does not want to be deported.

"I have a question for the Home Secretary, whether Mr Aziz was an angel and I am a devil?" Khan was quoted as saying at the hearing.

Aziz was jailed for nine years in 2012, for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child by penetrative sex and trafficking for sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl.

Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.

Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others using violence when she complained.

The hearing was adjourned with a decision on deportation expected later this year, the report added.