Deaf child migrant, 6, faces deportation

Lawand Hamadamin is getting specialist education at the Royal School for the Deaf Derby

A six-year-old deaf boy who fled Iraq with his family to escape the so-called Islamic State (IS) group has had his application to stay in the UK turned down by the government.

Lawand Hamadamin came to the UK after a year in a refugee camp in France.

The family has appealed against the decision to deport them and the case will be heard in the High Court.

The Home Office said it would not "shoulder the burden" of other country's asylum claims.

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If the appeal is unsuccessful Lawand and his family will be deported to Germany, as the government says this is where they should have claimed asylum, says the boy's school in Derby.

The family made it to the UK after they fled northern Iraq when IS threatened to kill disabled children.

'Understandably devastated'

After travelling via Greece, Germany and France, the family hid in the back of a lorry to get to the UK and ended up in Derby.

Lawand now receives specialist education at the city's Royal School for the Deaf.

The school's head teacher, Helen Shepherd, told the BBC in December he had made "exceptional progress".

"Lawand's family are understandably devastated that they are being deported," she said after the latest decision.

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

"Asylum seekers should claim in the first safe country they arrive in.

"Where there is evidence that an asylum seeker is the responsibility of another European country we will seek to return them there."

It is not yet known when the case will be heard by the High Court.

The family's bid to stay in the UK will be heard at the High Court