One of the men involved in the infamous Rochdale foster gang has complained about his treatment in the UK at a deportation hearing.
Before an immigration court, 51-year-old Adil Khan told the court on Monday that his rights as an individual in the UK had been stripped of him.
He and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, were told that they would be sent back to Pakistan after being convicted of several serious sexual offenses against young girls.
Police said up to 47 girls were being cared for by the Rochdale gang, which included Khan and Rauf, along with seven other men. The group targeted girls as young as 12 years old and besieged them with alcohol and drugs before they were trafficked and raped.
Khan was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2012 for his crimes, including pregnancy of a 13-year-old girl and trafficking with a 15-year-old. Four years later he was released on license.
In 2012, Rauf was sentenced to six years in prison for trafficking in human beings with a 15-year-old girl and was released in November 2014 after two and a half years in prison.
Khan told the court that the Home Office had revoked his driver’s license and said that he only “survived” from his son’s accomplishments.
He said of a Mirpuri translator, “I cannot exercise any rights in this country as an individual. I can’t do anything for my family, I only live on my son’s achievements.
“When it rains I can’t take my son to school, we can’t afford a taxi.
“The police told me about a month ago that they had revoked my driver’s license as instructed by the Interior Ministry.”
Judge Nehar Bird, chairman of the deportation tribunal, made it clear that the court was currently not interested in his complaints.
“Mr. Khan, the purpose of this hearing is to decide how to proceed in the hearing of your appeal. It is not here to decide whether to get a driver’s license, whether to get money, whether to be taken into custody. That is not the purpose of the hearing, ”said Judge Bird.
“This tribunal is here to decide whether the Home Office’s decision to deport you back to Pakistan is legally right or wrong,” added the judge.
The two men are currently appealing deportation after appealing against deportation after a six-year legal battle in which they lost their right to stay in the UK despite having dual citizenship.
The ongoing tribunal has heard that her appeal focuses on two elements – statelessness and alleged human rights violations.
Both men have been issued certificates by the Pakistani government which they believe represent their legal waiver of their Pakistani citizenship. If this proves valid, the deportation of the men could effectively render them stateless, which is illegal and makes the action unlawful.
However, the documents in question were issued in September 2018 after the two men were stripped of their British citizenship. The validity and legality of the documents remains uncertain under Pakistani law, and Khan’s lawyers have sought expert advice.
The second ground of appeal concerns the rights of men under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which arise from their individual circumstances and which relate to their private and family life.
A further case review hearing will take place on November 29, ahead of the main trial, which is expected to take place next year – about 10 years after the men were convicted.
As both men had dual British-Pakistani citizenship, they were theoretically at risk of being deprived of their British citizenship and deportation after Theresa May, the then Home Secretary, said her deportation was “beneficial to the public good”.
