Asian-born sex abusers reportedly face deportation on release from prison.
Home Secretary Theresa May hopes to extend her department’s use of legal powers to withdraw British citizenship for convicted criminals with dual nationality, the Independent reported.
It could apply to people such as the British-Pakistani members of the Rotherham sex abuse scandal, who were convicted on Wednesday of offences including rape, false imprisonment and forced prostitution.
Brothers Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain face sentencing today and legal proceedings to initiate deportation to Pakistan could follow.
Such powers already exist but until now have only been used to strip passports from terrorists and terrorist sympathisers.
It comes after a string of cases in the UK where mainly white girls have been abused by gangs of Asian men.
In a sign of the Home Office’s new approach legal action has been taken against the British-Pakistani ringleader and three other members of a child sex gang in Rochdale.
They were convicted in 2012 of targeting girls as young as 13 before plying them with drink and drugs and then allowing them to be “passed around” for sex.
A special immigration tribunal in Manchester has just finished hearing appeals against the Home Secretary's decision to end their British citizenship and begin deportation proceedings.
A Home Office spokeswoman refused to confirm reports of plans to extend the department’s powers.
But she said: "Citizenship is a privilege not a right. The Home Secretary can deprive an individual of their citizenship where it is believed it is conducive to the public good to do so.”
