Why can’t Britain force Pakistan to accept a deportation?
by Tom Jones, UnHerd:
A convicted ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang is still in the UK.
The long shadow of Rotherham hangs heavy over British politics. Yesterday the Daily Mail reported that Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, convicted ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gang, are still living at their homes in the UK nine years after their deportation was ordered. One of Khan’s victims — whom he impregnated at 13 — recently came face-to-face with him in an Asda, unaware he had been released from prison after serving around half of his eight-year sentence.
This is a rare case in Britain. Their deportation hasn’t been stopped by the constant court appeals on increasingly spurious grounds of the defendants’ human rights, but because Pakistan is refusing to allow them to return.
What power does the UK have to force Pakistan to take them? It appears, at first glance, rather a lot: Pakistan is “the top bilateral recipient of UK aid”, receiving over £1 billion since 2009. Pakistan also received nearly $300m in remittances from the UK last year.
Foreign aid is often cited as essential to the UK’s much-vaunted “soft power”. But Pakistan’s refusal raises questions: if this amount of aid cannot convince Pakistan — a formal ally — to allow us to deport dual nationals, how much use is soft power to the national interest?
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
