"It's disgusting. It's a travesty of justice."
Two members of the Rochdale grooming gang have lost their appeal against deportation from the UK.
Adil Khan and Abdul Rauf were among nine gang members jailed in 2012 for a series of child sex offences in Rochdale.
Khan got one girl pregnant, refusing to accept that the child was his until a DNA test was done.
He then met the other girl he trafficked to others for sex, using violence when she objected. He was jailed for eight years in 2012 and released on licence four years later.
Rauf trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to isolated areas to have sex with her in his taxi and taking her to a flat in Rochdale where and others had sex with her.
He was jailed for six years and released in November 2014.
Both men were told they would be deported to Pakistan following their release.
But Khan and Rauf fought a seven-year legal battle against deportation on the grounds that deportation would interfere with their human rights, mounting multiple legal challenges and appeals.
Earlier in 2022, an Immigration Tribunal hearing was held where both men issued pleas to stay in the UK.
On October 26, 2022, immigration judges ruled against their appeal.
Judges Charlotte Welsh and Siew Ling Yoke released their 31-page legal ruling, stating that Khan had shown a “breath-taking lack of remorse” and in his and Rauf’s case, there was a “very strong public interest” in their removal.
Although Khan and Rauf will be deported, it was heard that one ringleader Abdul Aziz had avoided deportation.
Aziz was told by the Home Office that despite losing an appeal depriving him of UK citizenship, the first step before deportation to Pakistan, he would not in fact lose his citizenship and was allowed to remain in the UK.
Aziz was jailed for nine years in 2012.
He took his victim to flats in Rochdale, plying her with vodka and drugs and coercing her into sex with gangs of men in return for payment to him.
The father of one victim spoke of his disgust that Aziz was allowed to remain in the UK.
He said: “It’s disgusting. It’s a travesty of justice. Deportation was ordered to happen by the government and somehow that’s been turned on its head.
“Who in all this cares about our (daughter) and all the other victims?
“It looks like the other two are doing the same thing and does that mean we can’t throw them out either?
“It’s not right. I can’t say I’m not English anymore. It’s plainly obvious they have renounced their citizenship so they can stay here.
“I was absolutely disgusted when I heard the news. It’s a travesty. They were ordered to be removed. They are paedophiles and nobody wants them around.
“Who’s going to atone if they attack a child in the future? Who will be to blame for that?
“If it was up to me I wouldn’t give him the chance and deport him.
“Why can’t we send them home when they have committed the most heinous crimes?”
During their appeal, Khan and Rauf cited the right to a private and family life.
Both also renounced their Pakistani nationality, receiving a certificate of proof in September 2018.
But this only came after the Court of Appeal decision in June to deport the grooming gang members from the UK, though they only received the deprivation order in November 2018.
But during the immigration hearing, Khan continued to deny his crimes and claimed he only knew 10 words of English.
During multiple deportation appeal hearings, Khan also complained about having no rights in the UK and said he needed to remain to be a role model for his son and teach him “right from wrong”.
Home Office lawyers argued the case had taken a “very long time” and it is in the public interest to deport the two grooming gang members “as soon as possible”.
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