Teenager who fled war-torn Afghanistan after his father was murdered by the Taliban facing deportation

A teenager who fled war-torn Afghanistan only to be kicked out of Britain after building a new life has pleaded with the government to halt his imminent deportation.
Najibullah Hashimi - whose father was murdered by the brutal Taliban regime - is set to be flown back to Afghanistan on Monday, despite achieving 13 GCSEs, settling down with a foster family and a girlfriend and becoming a pillar of his community.
The aspiring teacher, aged just 18, today begged: 'This country gave me everything.
'It's my dream to give something back to this country and that's what I will lose if they send me back.'

Desperate: Naj Hashimi will be deported back to Afghanistan, despite achieving 13 GCSEs and becoming a pillar of the community

The sixth form student, captain of his school cricket club and also a coach, is desperate to stay in the UK but his last-gasp appeals have failed and he is now locked up in an immigration removal centre.
He his being forced to return because he turned 18 last year and is now obliged to return to his home country.

With just hours to spare before the plane set to carry him back to his troubled  home country lifts off from British soil, the schoolboy issued a direct plea to Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to review his case.
The promising cricketer, known as Naj to his family and friends, said he was unable to face food at the centre in Dover ahead of his controversial deportation.

An online petition to save the teenager from being deported has attracted hundreds of signatures

Naj said: 'I can't leave my family. I have a really good life here. 'I love my foster family. I have a nice girlfriend.'
The teen, who is studying a sports diploma at Sittingbourne Community College in Kent and is a prominent member of his local cricket team, fled his war-ravaged homeland for Pakistan as a terrified 11-year-old alongside his mother after his father was brutally killed by the Taliban.
At the age of 14 his widowed mother and uncle paid an agent to traffic him across Europe and into Britain, with Naj arriving in the country hidden on a lorry and unable to speak a word of English.
He set about learning the language and within just two years had gained a remarkable 13 GCSEs.
Naj, who speaks four languages, acts as a mentor to other Afghan boys in his school and dreams of settling in the UK permanently.
Yet he is faced with the prospect of packing up his belongings and carrying a meagre 20 kilograms of luggage back to Afghanistan - a country where he no longer has friends or family.
'If I get out of the aeroplane I don't know where to go. I have made a life here. There, I have no one,' the youngster said today.
Naj said he treated foster parents Steve and Michelle Griffiths as though they were his own family.
'They are like my own blood,' he said.
'I have got a family life here now and [the authorities] are sending me back to Afghanistan, which is going to be exactly the same situation I fled five years ago.
'I love my foster family and they love me.'

The teenager fled war-torn Afghanistan and says he has no home or relatives to return to

Naj is due to celebrate his 19th birthday in a week's time, but faces the heartbreaking prospect of spending it thousands of miles apart from his girlfriend of a 16 months, Lucy Pearce.
The youngster was arrested at Gravesend police station in Kent on March 5 and has been locked up ever since.
Naj said his biological mother, now living in Pakistan, had been in tears on the phone when he told her he was facing a battle to remain in Britain.
Naj's emotional foster dad Steve, an ex-fireman and former soldier, made a heartfelt plea to the Government to halt the youngster's deportation.
Mr Griffiths said: 'I don't ask much of my country, except that it should now do the decent and honourable thing and let stay the boy I consider my real son, who everybody loves.'
Mr Griffiths, 43, who has looked after him for the last two years, said that lost Naj's family had no option but to try to give him a better life outside the war-torn country.
He said: 'Without being over-sentimental, he's the sort of son every foster parent wants - he's a credit to me and this country. But now we appear to have run out of legal options and perhaps only the PM can intervene. I hope it's not too late for him to act.'
An online petition, 'Save Naj Hashimi', has received more than 1,00 signatures in the 48 hours since it was set up.
A UK Border Agency spokesman said it was unable to comment on individual cases but added: 'The UK only returns individuals if both the UKBA and the courts are satisfied they do not need our protection and have no legal basis to remain in the country.
'We encourage these people to leave voluntarily and offer assistance to those who choose to do so.'

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