Vigil for asylum seeking Rabar

A LAST-DITCH attempt is being made to stop an asylum seeker being kicked-out of an Oldham children’s home today.

Around 20 people took part in a vigil yesterday to support Breeze Hill pupil Rabar Hamad who fled Iraq after his parents were killed by a bomb.

He arrived in Wigan in 2008 after spending a terrifying 10 days in the wheel arch of a truck.

However social services there have ordered him to leave his children’s home in Oldham — the nearest available place — today.

They are withdrawing his funding because they believe he is 20, while Rabar says he is 16.

This is despite the fact that supporters say that he has been told to stay at that address by immigration officials who are yet to start the process of deciding his asylum case.

Shame

The vigil was held outside Wigan Town Hall in a bid to shame social services into changing itsdecision.

An official agreed to meet with campaigners, but refused to back down.

Rabar’s teacher Sally Hyman said: “He is desperate, absolutely desperate. He just wants to stay in the children’s home where he has been looked after so well.

“He doesn’t really grasp why he is being treated the way he is. He is an intelligent lad, but he doesn’t have the maturity to understand it.

“He said ‘why don’t they believe me, is it because they don’t like me?’ That’s not a 20-year-old speaking.”

Solicitors are working today to get an eleventh-hour reprieve for Rabar.

It is not known where he will stay if he is forced to leave and Sally added: “We have advised him to stay until the last possible moment to give the solicitor the maximum possible time.”