The Home Office has listened to the appeals of the Church of Scotland and others, and told a 13-year-old orphan he can stay in the UK permanently.

Giorgi Kakava, who lived with the threat of deportation for 10 years, said a “big weight” had been lifted off his shoulders. 

Originally from Georgia, in the Caucasus region, his mother Sopio Baikhadze fled the country with him in 2011.

She feared her son, who was only three at the time, would be killed or sold to sex traffickers by gangsters because her late husband owed them money.

Finding refuge in Glasgow, she was awaiting the outcome of an asylum application when she tragically died after a long illness in 2018. 

Before passing away, she expressed her wish for her son to remain in Scotland and grow up a “Scottish boy”.

The Church of Scotland took up his case and launched a national campaign led by Springburn Parish Church minister, the Rev Brian Casey, who lobbied the UK and Scottish governments on his behalf. 

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