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This week, we were faced with yet another appalling example of our criminal justice system failing young victims of the most heinous, evil crimes imaginable. What possessed the judge to forbid the extraordinarily brave survivor to have her say after the guilty verdict was delivered?
By calling for the deportation of the men who had mercilessly groomed and abused her from childhood, she was voicing what every right-thinking person in the country was thinking. And yet, she was silenced in court. That was simply wrong. While the guilty verdicts attracted suitably long prison sentences, the victims had every right to call for the men to be deported on serving their sentences.
The seven men in the dock were all with Pakistani backgrounds, were convicted of offences that spanned more than a decade. The victim, who was groomed from the age of 11, faced her abusers in court as they were sentenced to a combined 106 years in prison. Yet, in her victim impact statement, a crucial request was removed—her plea for two of the men, Rudy Mohammed Amar and Showabe Mohammed Siyab, to be deported back to Pakistan, their country of origin, was removed. The judge ordered the removal of her request, with the barrister for the Crown Prosecution Service claiming that the decision to deport is “up to the Home Office.” The system had once again prioritised the rights of foreign criminals over the rights and dignity of a British victim.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, any foreign national convicted of a serious crime should face deportation after serving their sentence. Indeed, the Home Secretary has a legal duty to deport foreign nationals sentenced to a year or more in prison. Amar and Siyab should have been left in no doubt that that is what will happen on completion of their sentences. Their victim should have been allowed to call for deportation notwithstanding it will be incumbent on the Home Secretary to order their deportation, as the law now stands.
For years, local governments, police, and social services have failed to face up to the scourge that is grooming gangs who, as often as not, targeted young, vulnerable, white girls, in working-class communities. Time and time again, we have heard of whistleblowers being silenced, victims ignored, and public institutions turning a blind eye to hideous crimes for fear of causing offence and their actions being labelled racist or Islamophobic. That’s a pusillanimous, if not cowardly, approach.
From Rochdale to Telford, there has been an epidemic of grooming gangs over many years that has exposed the shameful failure of our institutions to face up to the problem and deal with it. Time will tell whether we are now doing enough to protect future victims or to ensure that those responsible face the full consequences of their actions—including deportation. We have serious doubts that we are and that the cases uncovered in the recent past may be the tip of a giant iceberg.
Our laws are clear: those who come here to exploit, harm, and destroy lives must be exposed, punished and removed to their country of origin. The deportation on completion of their prison sentence of criminals like Rudy Mohammed Amar and Showabe Mohammed Siyab should follow as a matter of course. No question.
This is a preview of Migration Watch’s free weekly newsletter. Please consider signing up to the newsletter directly, you can do so here and will receive an email copy of the newsletter every week as soon as it is released.