NEW CAMPAIGN FOR TEENAGER FACING DEPORTATION

A Church of Scotland minister has made a fresh appeal fora teenage orphan to be granted permission to stay in the UK permanently.

The Rev Brian Casey said it was a “scandal and a moral outrage” that Giorgi Kakava – who arrived in Glasgow aged three – is still living under a cloud of uncertainty.

Giorgi and his mother, Sopio Baikhadze, arrived in Glasgow in 2011, and were awaiting the outcome of an appeal for asylum when she passed away after a long illness in early 2018.

After the church launched a major campaign and a petition signed by 90,000 people, Giorgi and his grandmother Ketino Baikhadze were granted 30-month residency permits, but these expired in December and now they are again facing the threat of deportation.

A new petition calling for Giorgi to be allowed to stay permanently had nearly 100,000 names at the time of writing.

Mr Casey said: “We are called to hold those in power to account for their decisions and to show that there are human lives at stake.”

Giorgi Kakava by the memorial to his mother