IN a scenario all too familiar to families living in the UK’s hostile environment for immigrants, Iceland was all set to deport a Pakistani couple, with a seven year old child, until a public campaign began to keep them in the country.
Now Muhammed Zohair Faisal and his parents have been allowed to stay in Iceland after the country’s Office of Immigration withdrew the order to send them out of the country last week.
According to reports in Iceland, Muhammed talks fluent Icelandic and has never lived in Pakistan.
It was reported by Reykjavik Grapevine, that their case had been under review at the Office of Immigration for more than 18 months.
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Iceland Magazine reported: “He has adjusted the life in Iceland like so many other children of refugees that have come to Iceland for a better life.
“For an example Muhammed is way ahead of his classmates in math. He loves Iceland and when he heard the news that he was going to Pakistan he got excited to see the country that his parents are from. Not knowing what the deportation would mean he asked: “When are we coming back home to Iceland?”
People who knew the family began a protest petition and it soon gathered 19,000 signatures.
Aslaug Arna Sigurbjornsdottir, Iceland’s Minister of Justice, had already announced plans to shorten the waiting time for asylum seekers with children.
The change came just in time for Muhammed and his family who were waiting on the police escort to take them to Keflavik Airport when the new came through of their ability to stay.
Valur Grettisson, the editor of The Reykjavik Grapevine, said: “The rules have been changed so that the government will not ban families from other countries that have been here for more than sixteen months.”
Iceland Magazine concluded: “Muhammed had his seventh birthday last Saturday so the announcement was probably the best birthday gift of them all.
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