The family of a six-year-old deaf boy who fled Iraq because of death threats from extremists say they’re devastated after being told they face being deported.
Lawand Hamad Amin has learned to use sign language at the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby.
Teachers there are amazed by his progress. His family is now worried that being forced to leave could have a big impact on his development and well being.
Lawand and his family left northern Iraq after reports the so-called Islamic State was ordering disabled children to be killed by lethal injection.
The family spent a year living in a tent in a camp in Dunkirk before leaving for the UK.
As the family made its way to Europe, Lawand’s parents put a plastic bag on his head to protect his cochlear implant.
When they did eventually reach Dunkirk, the family was unable to charge the batteries for Lawand’s implant and the boy lived “most of his life in a silent world”.
After hiding in the back of a lorry to get to the UK, the family was first sent by the Home Office to Halifax but later relocated to Derby so Lawand could get specialist help.
The Home Office says:
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it but it is only fair that we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.
Asylum seekers should claim in the first safe country they arrive in. Where there is evidence that an asylum seeker is the responsibility of another European country we will seek to return them there.
