Fahim, 12, is fighting for his life against cancer, but the Home Office has ruled that he doesn't need his parents by his side. CAROLINE COOLEY reports.

The Home Office has ordered a couple to return to Africa, leaving their desperately ill 12-year-old son in Britain.

Fahim Manji and his parents arrived in Harrow from Tanzania in June seeking treatment for his leukaemia. He is not entitled to free NHS care and the family and supporters have been raising the cash needed to top up the £10,000 they brought with them.

But the Home Office has ruled it is not necessary for the whole family to stay and his parents and brother must leave by the end of this month.

Amin and Nasim Manji received the bombshell at their temporary home in Colton Road last week, just days after doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead told them Fahim would need a bone marrow transplant and they had started to raise £100,000 to pay for it. Mr Manji's request for a work permit at the end of last year seems to have triggered the expulsion.

He said: "They turned down the application and said because we cannot support ourselves we will have to leave in 28 days or face deportation. Fahim can stay but we can't. It's terrible."

The Home Office said it would consider an appeal for one of them to stay, provided they could prove they had sufficient funds.

"We are all very upset," Mr Manji said. "Fahim is very frustrated. I think he's had enough. He said 'Why don't we all go home, and forget the whole thing?'."

The Home Office said Fahim should stay with a "maternal aunt" who lives in Imperial Drive, North Harrow, but Mr Manji said she was a family friend, not a relative.

"She has arthritis and has two disabled children," he said. "It would not be fair to leave Fahim with her. I don't know why they think she is related.

"Anyway, we want to be with Fahim and he wants to be with us. We can't leave him."

The family's solicitor Parvinder Bhogal described the expulsion order as harsh.

She said: "The Home Office can make an exception to the immigration rules but have decided this is not an exceptional case.

"They could have allowed the family to stay if they could have supported themselves but they won't let them work so they can do so. They are in a Catch 22."

The Manjis stayed their friend in North Harrow when they first arrived but moved out when they realised how long they would be here and their other son Farhaan, 16, joined them. He is attending Gayton High School in Harrow.

Fahim was making good progress and started going to Norbury Middle School in Harrow in November but suffered a relapse in March. He has already undergone two courses of chemotherapy, costing £45,000, of which £35,000 was donated.

"He's very weak and tired at the moment," Mr Manji said. "Fahim has 30 to 35 cousins in Tanzania and some blood samples have just been sent over to be tested for a match."

Harrow East MP Tony McNulty was trying to meet Home Secretary Jack Straw yesterday (Wednesday). He said: "I am trying to end this family's turmoil."

Donations to the Fahim Manji Appeal can be sent care of the Harrow Times Series.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.