The Home Office has declined to publish data on deportations of grooming gang members amid rising concerns over child exploitation
Rochdale: So, the Home Office is not sharing any numbers on how many grooming gang members have been deported. It’s a bit shocking, right? There’s been a lot of noise about child sexual exploitation, and people are really pushing for more transparency.
Last week, Labour decided not to kick off a public inquiry into past sexual abuse by gangs in Oldham. They think it’s up to the local council to figure that out. Meanwhile, Suella Braverman, a former home secretary, is calling for a strict approach to deporting foreign child sex offenders.
She’s pretty adamant that we need to be tough on this issue. It’s wild to think that a guy who led a grooming gang in Rochdale is still living there, even after being ordered to be sent back to Pakistan. That’s nine years after the deportation was supposed to happen!
Qari Abdul Rauf was one of those guys, and he only served a couple of years in jail before being released. Even though Theresa May ordered his deportation, he’s still in Rochdale, and his victims have to deal with that. Pakistan won’t take him back, which is just frustrating.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, is saying the government should limit visas for countries that won’t take back these offenders. He believes that might make those countries rethink their stance. It’s a tough situation, and it seems like the government is trying to figure out how to handle it better.
There’s been a push for police to gather data on the ethnicity of those involved in grooming gangs since last year. But there’s a lot of concern that political correctness might be getting in the way of keeping kids safe. It’s a complicated issue, and it feels like there’s still a long way to go.
Even Sir Keir Starmer admitted that vulnerable girls were let down by the justice system when he was in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service. It’s a tough pill to swallow, knowing that the system didn’t take these cases seriously enough.
It’s clear that this is a hot topic, and the Home Office has been asked for comments, but it seems like they’re keeping quiet for now.
