‘Undeportable’ Rape Gang Ringleader Released From Prison.

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The release of Shabir Ahmed, the convicted Pakistani ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, has reignited debate over the United Kingdom’s lax immigration laws.

PULSE POINTS
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: The Pakistani ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang has been released from prison, following news that the government has decided he “cannot” be deported.📺 DETAIL: Shabir Ahmed, the 73-year-old Pakistani ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, one of the most infamous gangs in the broader grooming scandal across the United Kingdom, which involves decades of mostly Muslim, South Asian men targeting white working-class girls for sexual abuse, has been released from prison. Ahmed served just 19 years of his notional 40-year sentence. He was convicted alongside eight other men for rape, aiding and abetting rape, and trafficking for sexual exploitation. The victims of Ahmed’s crimes were as young as 12, Despite being stripped of his British citizenship in 2012, Ahmed avoided deportation to Pakistan due to the Immigration Act 1971, which prevents immigrants from Commonwealth countries who arrived in the United Kingdom before 1973, and have lived in the country for at least five years, from being deported. As Ahmed arrived in Britain before 1973, and originally came from Pakistan, one of the 56 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, an international grouping of nations formerly colonies and dependencies of the British Empire, he supposedly could not be deported, and was released on Thursday.💬 KEY QUOTE: “I’m scared for my safety and my kids’ safety… The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham, and Middleton, so even if he’s not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe,” said “Ruby,” a victim of the Rochdale grooming gang being supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, a survivors’ charity founded by Maggie Oliver, a Greater Manchester police officer-turned-whistleblower in the grooming gang scandal.🎯 IMPACT: Following his release, Ahmed will be subject to GPS monitoring, curfews, and exclusion zones. “As well as facing strict curfews and restriction zones, his every movement will be tracked, forced to wear an electronic tag. Should he breach his conditions, he will be immediately locked up,” said a police spokesman. Victims have expressed fears for their safety. In reaction to Ahmed’s release from prison, Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “The foreign ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang has been released early and Labour claims he ‘cannot he deported’. Britain is broken.” Notably, the British Parliament has far more freedom of action than the U.S. Congress and the White House, and could amend the Immigration Act retrospectively or even pass specific legislation to authorize Ahmed’s deportation, and he would have no recourse in the British courts.

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