Family’s fear for son’s fate as 6,000 sign petition

A SYRIAN family fear they will be torn apart after the Home Office said their young son must be deported from the UK.

The Mirzo family were reunited with their son Mohammed in April after more than four years apart, but the Home Office say he must return to Bulgaria, where he first arrived in the EU.

Mohammed Mirzo, 19, is being held at an immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire and could be deported at any moment.

Mohammed was separated from the rest of his family when he was aged 16 and ended up in Bulgaria after they fled Aleppo.

He made it to Cardiff, where he saw his mum for the first time in two years and met his newborn baby brother for the first time.

Ali Mirzo, Mohammed’s father, said: “We are desperately worried about our son. His greatest fear is being removed to Bulgaria, where he had a traumatic experience when he was still just a child.

“His life was turned upsidedown when he became a refugee aged 16, and lived through suffering in Bulgaria and Germany.”

After around five months in Bulgaria, Mohammed travelled to Germany, where his family say he was attacked by a neo-Nazi gang.

When Mohammed made it to Cardiff, he applied for refugee status, but during one Home Office meeting he was detained and held at Parc Prison for two days before being sent to the Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre in Oxfordshire.

His family say he could be deported to Bulgaria before November 2, prompting a petition which has gained almost 6,000 signatures in three days.

Mohammed’s brother Salah, 21, said: “Almost every hour we have to call him to give him hope.

“If he is sent to Bulgaria I don’t think anything good will happen.”

Mohammed’s father Ali arrived in Cardiff in 2015 and gradually brought the rest of his family to join him. Settling in Lakeside, Ali set up the Royal Coast Cafe in the city centre and volunteers as an interpreter for child refugees.

Ali said: “We are so grateful for the welcome Cardiff has offered my family and other Syrian refugees.”

Ali’s two teenage daughters have settled at Cardiff High and Llanishen High schools and he and his wife have a baby boy.

The family said they are appealing the Home Office decision.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, but it is only fair we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.”

The petition can be signed at www.change.org/p/amberrudd-mp-don-t-send-mohammed-mirzo-to-bulgaria-themirzo-family-belong-togetherin-cardiff