British home secretary Sajid Javid

ISLAMABAD: Most pedophiles in the UK are of Pakistani descent and ignoring their ethnicity will only encourage extremists, the British home secretary Sajid Javid who himself is of Pakistani origin told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday.

A high-proportion of men involved in gang-based child exploitation in the UK are of Pakistani descent, Javid, said on BBC Radio 4 Today programme. Ignoring the ethnicity of abusers gives “oxygen” to extremists, he added. Earlier this year, Javid had faced criticism for a tweet referring to "sick Asian paedophiles".

Asked by the British-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, who was guest-editing the Today programme, whether he was concerned that his comments may have fuelled hate crimes, Javid said he was “very much aware of the need for politicians to be careful with their language”.

“When it comes to gang-based child exploitation it is self-evident to anyone who cares to look that if you look at all the recent high-profile cases there is a high proportion of men that have Pakistani heritage,” he said.

Javid further said: “There could be – I’m not saying that there are - there could be some cultural reasons from the communities that these men came from that could lead to this kind of behaviour.”

The home secretary has ordered research into the characteristics and contexts of gangs abusing children, arguing that ignoring issues such as ethnicity is more likely to fuel the far-right.

“When I’m asking my officials to go away and do research to look into the causes of gang-based child exploitation, then I want them to leave no stone unturned and to look at everything,” he said.

“If I had ignored it, or been seen to ignore it, that is exactly what I think extremists would like to see in this country. It would give them oxygen and I refuse to do that,” Javid added.

