The Home Secretary will change the law so the freed leader of a Rochdale grooming gang can be deported, the BBC has reported.
As first reported by the Telegraph, Shabana Mahmood is expected to set out on Monday how she plans to amend the Immigration Act 1971, which currently bars the removal of Shabbir Ahmed from the UK.
Ahmed, 73, was jailed for 22 years in August 2012 for a string of child sex offences, including rape. He was released on license last week.
Known to his victims as “Daddy”, Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of his first after his conviction in 2012.
It is unknown how long it will take to change the law, but one government source suggested it could potentially take up to a year.
At the time of his release, his victims were told he could not be deported to Pakistan because of the 55-year-old Immigration Act, which bars the removal of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973 and has been in the country for five years.
Upon his release from prison, Ahmed was placed in a 24-hour staffed facility and equipped with an electronically monitored GPS tag.
The Home Office said he would be subject to strict license conditions following his release, including exclusion zones, electronically monitored curfews and sex offender registry requirements.
Some of his victims said they were “scared” by his release and felt “unsafe”.
While he is in the UK, the government has said that any breach of Ahmed’s strict license conditions will result in his immediate return to prison.
Ahmed was one of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham who were found guilty of exploiting 13-year-old girls at two takeaway restaurants in the Heywood area of Rochdale.
Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, is calling on the government to back an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill that would allow Ahmed to be deported.
Home Secretary Alex Norris told MPs this week that the government would not give up trying to deport Ahmed for his “heinous” crimes.
It is also understood that there is currently no agreement with Pakistan allowing the UK to return Ahmed there.
Paul Waugh, MP for Rochdale, told the BBC he had “called on ministers to act quickly and change the law to allow authorities to kick this vile child rapist out of Britain.”
He said changing the law to allow Ahmed’s deportation “would be the first step in giving victims hope that they will never have to meet him again.”
“The next step is to make it clear to Pakistan that they have to take him back,” Waugh said.