Two notorious Rochdale grooming gang ringleaders could finally be deported to Pakistan - a decade after a judge first authorised their forced departure.
Qari Abdul Rauf, 55, and Adil Khan, 54, may be sent home at last after the UK dropped a ban on direct flights between the two countries dating back five years.
The child groomers, at the heart of a child abuse ring where girls as young as 12 were groomed with free booze and drugs before being gang-raped, held dual British-Pakistani citizenship but were stripped of their British nationality when they were convicted and jailed in 2012.
Both men then renounced their Pakistani citizenship - in a cynical move that made them stateless and consequently much harder to deport due to international law.
In 2022 the men lost an appeal against deportation after a seven-year legal battle that cost the British taxpayer a fortune, but they remain living in Rochdale because Pakistan will not take them back.
But Islamabad's position could now change, according to reports in The Times and the Telegraph, now that UK ministers have given the green light for direct flights to resume between the two countries.
The country's national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was barred from operating inside the EU and UK in 2020. The ban followed an incident on May 22 that year when a passenger flight from Lahore to Karachi crashed, killing 97 out of the 99 people on board as well as an additional victim on the ground.
Married father-of-five Rauf, a religious studies teacher at a Rochdale mosque, would drive schoolgirls to other men who would rape and abuse them. He walked free in 2014 after serving just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence.
Last month the Daily Mail revealed he has built a house in his native Pakistan - despite receiving £285,000 of taxpayers' money in a battle against being deported. The home threw into doubt claims he had cut ties with Pakistan.
Khan was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He had a baby with one of the victims, who was just 13 at the time. He served four years of an eight-year jail term and was released in 2016.
Rauf ferried victims from Rochdale to sex parties as far away as Leeds and Bradford. Nine men were eventually convicted for trafficking and abusing just under 50 girls.
Officials in Islamabad last month told The Times that Pakistan may finally agree to take the two men once direct flights are resumed.
And the British High Commission in Pakistan confirmed yesterday that PIA is once again legally allowed to fly no-stop routes into the UK.
A spokesperson said: 'After a sustained, independent, and technically driven process, the UK’s Air Safety Committee has lifted its restrictions on Pakistani carriers.
'It will take time for flights to resume, but this is an important step, and a testament to Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority's air safety improvements.
'Individual airline carriers will still need to apply for permits to operate to the UK through the UK Civil Aviation Authority.'
Jane Marriott, the UK high commissioner to Pakistan, added: 'I’m grateful to aviation experts in the UK and Pakistan for their collaborative work to drive improvements to meet international safety standards.
'While it will take time for flights to resume, once the logistics are in place, I look forward to using a Pakistani carrier when visiting family and friends.'
This dropping of the ban will be welcome news to the 1.6million people of Pakistani heritage living in the UK.
David Lammy is currently leading discussions with Pakistan on their return, and both the Foreign Secretary and Home Office ministers are reported to be 'working very hard' to strike an agreement.
Faith minister Lord Khan, who has strong connections to Pakistan, is also said to be involved in talks.
Paul Waugh, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said: 'This is very welcome news. I know that this decision will have been taken solely on the basis of the safety improvements made by the airline and is not linked to deportations.
'But it indicates exactly the kind of close working relationship we need between the UK and Pakistan to pave the way for the return of Pakistani nationals deported from the UK – including the men convicted for being Rochdale grooming gang members.'
Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that Rauf was working in Rochdale as a delivery driver, prompting fears he might meet one of his victims during the course of his work.
His neighbours in Rochdale were disgusted that he is still allowed to live in the same town where he carried out his vile crimes.
One mother, who lives just a few doors away, said: 'Nobody can believe that monster is still here, after what he did to those young girls.
'It's disgusting. What is the country coming to? Why is he still here?'
Three weeks ago furious neighbours of Abdul Rauf in Rochdale say they are terrified to let their children out of sight after the 55-year-old was released having served just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence.
The convicted paedophile was told he would be deported back to Pakistan after completing his sentence in 2014 - but he remains living in the Greater Manchester town more than a decade later.
Rauf claims to be stateless after renouncing his Pakistani nationality - however his claim to have cut ties have now been thrown into doubt.
Neighbours in the remote village which he left to move to Britain in the 1990s have revealed that the father-of-five has paid for a house to be built there.
They said his intention was to live in it when he is finally kicked out of the UK.
They also contradicted his claim during his battle against deportation that he would be at risk in Pakistan due to 'public opinion' because of his convictions, saying his family remains 'influential' there.
Rauf was one of a nine-strong gang of Asian men who sexually assaulted 47 girls, some as young as 12, after plying them with drink and drugs.
Their conviction in 2012 shocked the country and sparked years of campaigning by victims which earlier this month finally prompted Sir Keir Starmer to agree to a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.
Rauf - who moved to the UK in 1997 - lost an appeal against being stripped of British nationality in 2018.
But he appealed against deportation on the grounds he had already renounced his Pakistani citizenship and would therefore be rendered stateless.
Rauf has received a staggering £285,000 in legal aid as he bids to avoid being thrown out of the country, it emerged earlier this year.
Despite losing the case, he remains in Rochdale where he works as a takeaway delivery driver as Pakistan won't accept him without valid travel documents.
But inquiries by MailOnline in his home village of Charhoi in Pakistan-administered Kashmir suggest he has retained close links.
According to villagers who know the family, he has sent back money to fund the construction of a new house near the bazaar with the intention of living there himself.
They said he initially allowed his elder brother to live there with his family - but had now asked him to vacate the building.
'His brother lived there for few months but came back to his old home when his children told him to leave Abdul Rauf's home and go back to his old one,' the resident said.
As part of his 2022 appeal against deportation, Rauf claimed that if he was sent back to Pakistan 'I would be at risk due to the public opinion of the criminal conviction' and would not be 'protected' by the authorities there.
But a villager cast doubt on his claim, saying that while locals knew about the case, he would be safe as a result of his family ties.
'Since they are influential and financially strong people in their street, this topic was not much discussed,' the resident said.
Before his conviction, Rauf was seen as a pillar of Rochdale's Muslim community because of his role as a 'qari', a cleric who reads from the Koran.
But the men's trial heard how he trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferrying her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.
