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Priti Patel urged to deport Rochdale sex abusers who are back in town after being stripped of citizenship

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Priti Patel has been urged to deport three members of the Rochdale child sex gang who are back in the town two years after losing the right to stay in Britain.

The Home Office said five years ago that it intended to remove the men’s British citizenship, paving the way for their deportation.

Yet the three - including one known to victims by the sinister title The Master - are still in the UK nearly two years after losing their appeal on human rights grounds against their removal.

Nazir Afzal, the Crown prosecutor who pursued the case, said: “Individuals are allowed to exhaust their legal remedies. That I understand they have done. So it is a political or logistical reason as to why they have not been sent out of the country. Neither is sustainable.

“The men are a threat to local women and girls and the Government should comply with the direction of the court that these men should no longer be in this country because their presence conflicts with public safety.”

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A girl who blew the whistle on taxi driver Qari Abdul Rauf and his accomplices said: “I thought Theresa May had organised his deportation, so how come he’s still here?

"I feel violated to know he’s living near me – in the same area where he hunted for girls like me. It’s a total betrayal of grooming victims that he’s allowed to stay.”

She spoke after pictures on social media showing Rauf, 51, in the Lancashire town. Father-of-three Abdul Aziz, 49 – The Master – and Adil Khan, 50, live nearby after also being freed from jail. They were locked up in 2012.

A judge stated: “The men treated girls as though they were worthless and beyond all respect.”

The Rochdale gang was portrayed in Bafta-winning BBC drama Three Girls.

Rauf got six years for trafficking and sex with a girl, 15.

Aziz got nine years for trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sex with a child.

Khan got eight for conspiracy and trafficking a 13-year-old girl who fell pregnant.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to removing foreign national offenders wherever possible. Foreign national offenders should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them, and since 2010 we have removed more than 52,000 criminals.”