really unfair

AZIM ANSARI arrived in the Wiltshire town of Swindon in 2001 after months of travelling in the back of a lorry with his brother, Wali.
They got out at traffic lights, speaking virtually no English and having little more than the clothes they were wearing.
Three years later, the 18-year-old from Afghanistan is a student of engineering at St John’s College, Oxford, and again considering his future.
Yesterday Azim and Wali learned that their appeal to stay in Britain had been turned down by the Home Office and they must leave the country.
Speaking from his room at the college, Azim said: “I was very disappointed because we had had so much support in both Oxford and Bristol with a petition of more than 2,000 signatures and over 1,000 letters sent to the Home Office.
“We’d hoped that might help to change their minds because the letters showed that we are now part of the community and that people want us to stay.”
The brothers’ long journey began when Azim was just 15 and they were living at home in Polekhomri, north of Kabul.
Their father was a Hazari, an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, who was already used to the dangers of living under the Taleban. But when war broke out with the United States after September 11, he decided it was too dangerous for his sons to stay.
Selling almost everything he had, he paid “agents” to take both Wali, then 25, and Azim to Europe, leaving four other brothers and sisters.
“He never discussed it with us, he just told us we had to go,” Azim said. “We didn’t need that much; we just took a bag of clothes.”
Over months, the brothers travelled to Pakistan and Iran and then Turkey, where they got into the lorry that travelled to Britain.
Within hours the men were picked up and questioned by Wiltshire police before being put in bed and breakfast accommodation in Bristol.
It was while there that they set about applying for asylum.After a year their application had been processed and they were granted exceptional leave to remain for a year.
During that time Azim and Wali were busy. Despite never having enjoyed formal schooling, they both enrolled at City College, Bristol, where they learned to speak English and were taught maths and how to live in Britain.
Azim proved so talented that after just a year of studying, his tutors suggested he study maths, physics and computing at A level. A year into that course, he applied to St John’s College and was offered a place that depended on his results.

He said: “I chose engineering because I want to get involved in development work after university and I thought it was the right thing to do; because by building bridges and things you can help a lot and change lives drastically.”
But within just weeks of achieving two As and a B at A level, he heard that the Home Office would not extend his leave to remain. He appealed and yesterday learnt that that, too, had failed.

He said he and his brother, who works as a bus driver in Bristol, would take their case to a tribunal. He expected to keep studying while he waited for the hearing.
He said he had come to terms with student culture.
“It was quite tricky to begin with because I couldn’t speak English properly and coming from a different country I didn’t really understand the culture,” he said.
“But I find it much easier now as I can communicate properly and talk about the same things — I’ve been doing my research, watching television and reading Heat magazine.”
The president of St John’s College, Sir Michael Scholar, said: “We are very sorry if this decision means that Azim will not be able to complete his studies here. He is an excellent student and we have done all we could to support his wish to study engineering at St John’s.”
Last September a Kosovan refugee, Vildane Berani, won her battle to be allowed to study medicine at Oxford after the Home Office granted her leave to remain in this country indefinitely.
The Home Office said last night that it could not comment on indidvidual cases.