MPs disturbed over 'unjust' deportations in terror row

Published on Thursday 23 April 2009 22:08

THE deportation of students arrested in connection with a suspected terrorist plot is "disturbing and gravely unjust", two Labour MPs have warned.

Mohammad Sarwar, the Glasgow Central MP and chairman of the Scottish affairs committee, and Birmingham Perry Bar MP Khalid Mahmood warned the government against removing the men whom it has failed to charge.

In a letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the MPs said the raids and deportation would inflict "irreparable damage" to race relations. Efforts to win the "hearts and minds" of British Muslims had been undermined by the raids, they said.

Apart from one British citizen, all the released men are Pakistani nationals and have been handed over to the immigration authorities to be deported, according to Downing Street, on "national security" grounds. They had been in custody since 8 April, when armed police swooped on locations across north-west England.

The MPs said they had been urged to intervene by members of the Pakistani community, who "very understandably feel let down by the security forces".