- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
Home secretary Sajid Javid has been slammed for his apparent lack of action after he promised to look into claims that grooming gangs comprised mainly men of Pakistani heritage.
Last July, Javid ordered officials to work with police to build profile of sex gangs.
However, the Home Office has yet to speak to leading experts on the issue, and could not say when the review would be complete, reported HuffPost UK.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, whose Rotherham constituency was one of those to suffer at the hands of a grooming gang, told the website that she had seen “no evidence” to suggest the Javid had taken steps to honour his promise.
“The communications I have had makes me think they are deliberately trying to cover their tracks about commissioning and delivering that research,” she said.
Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor who brought the Rochdale grooming gang to justice, said the lack of action was “seriously concerning given the fact that it’s being exploited by the far-right”.
He also expresses surprise that neither he nor other leading experts on this issue had been approached by the Home Office.
“One of the reasons why these cases have taken so long to bring to justice is because police were the last people to understand the problem,” he said.
“It’s victims’ groups that have the greatest understanding. Talk to them.”
He added: “On subject after subject, you get the Home Office saying they are going to do something and they end up not doing it and hoping that you will forget about it.
“This is seriously concerning given the fact that it’s being exploited by the far-right, the fact that there are people who are suffering physically because they are being attacked because they are being accused of being offenders just because of their ethnicity.”
A Home Office spokesperson meanwhile insisted Javid had “made it clear that it is his mission to tackle child sexual abuse and will leave no stone in tackling this abhorrent behaviour”.
“As part of this, the home secretary has commissioned internal work to explore the characteristics of the groups involved in child sexual exploitation,” the spokesperson said.
