6 years old boy was on ISIS hit list because he is deaf - now he's facing deportation

The family of a six-year-old deaf boy who Islamic State wanted to kill are pleading with the Home Office to be allowed to stay in the UK.

Lawand Hamadamin, six, fled northern Iraq with his mum Golbahar, dad Rebwar and brother Rawa, nine, last year after ISIS ruled that disabled children should be killed by lethal injection.

After arriving in the UK in September, Lawand was given a place at the Royal School for the Deaf Derby, where he has thrived, learning British Sign Language.

But the family faces deportation to Germany and have been warned they will be given a week to leave on January 9.

Staff at Lawand’s school are appealing to the Home Office to let them stay.

Dad Rebwar said: “Lawand has been progressing so well in this school.

“He could not communicate when he started here and now he has no problem.

“We can’t thank the school enough. If we are deported we will have no home.

"All the progress Lawand has made will be lost. We are devastated.”

The family spent a year in a refugee camp in Dunkirk, France, before making it to the UK.

The law says refugees should apply for asylum in the first country of safety they reach, which is why they face being sent to a refugee camp in Germany.

His headteacher Helen Shepherd said it meant Lawand would miss the chance to get his cochlear implant, which had begun to fail before he left Iraq, repaired.

She said: “When Lawand arrived at the school he had no means of communicating with anyone, even his own family.

“Lawand has made exceptional progress. He is signing incredibly well and we have been so proud of him.”

She said Lawand was waiting for a referral to a cochlear implant centre.

She said: “There is little chance that he will get that appointment before the new year, by which time he could have gone.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “It is only fair that we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.”