Nepalese 'son' wins new hope to stay in UK

Debt of honour: Millionaire's battle to win right of residence for fatherless boy he 'adopted' is supported by immigration panel

WILL BENNETT

A Nepalese teenager who was rescued from a life of poverty and brought to Britain by a wealthy businessman should be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds, an immigration appeal tribunal recommended yesterday.

The final decision on whether Jayaram Khadka will be allowed to continue living in a Gloucestershire commune with Richard Morley, who regards him as his son, now rests with Michael Howard, the Home Secretary.

It is likely that Mr Howard will follow the tribunal's recommendation, but yesterday Mr Morley repeated his pledge to leave Britain and live abroad with Mr Khadka, 19, if he is deported for having no residence permit and the wrong age on his passport.

"I will never abandon my son, wherever he goes, I go," said Mr Morley, 41, the leader of a commune at Clearwell Castle, a neo-Gothic manor house in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, who is said to have made a pounds 2.5m fortune from a computer consultancy.

Mr Morley told the tribunal how Mr Khadka's father, Basu Khadka, saved his life by trekking for three days to get help when Mr Morley's lung collapsed in the Himalayas 11 years ago.

Mr Khadka snr, who had a heart condition, asked Mr Morley to look after his son in the event of his death.

Four years later, he died and in 1990 Mr Morley returned to Nepal, where he found the son living in squalor.

He brought him back to live in England but the boy only had a visitor's visa and his passport stated that he was 18, when in fact he was about 14.

The Home Office began moves to deport Mr Khadka, who has been educated by Mr Morley and other members of the commune.

In November, the tribunal dismissed his appeal against deportation but sat again last month to see whether there were any exceptional factors involved. Yesterday its three members recommended that he be allowed to stay, but their views are not legally binding.

Professor David Jackson, chairman of the tribunal, wrote in an eight- page judgement: "We are satisfied on what we have heard that there would be little sense in deporting Mr Khadka ... we think that the life he would live in Nepal, having had the experience of the 'family' life he has had in this country, would be traumatic for him.

"He appears to be a young man of promise and it would be regrettable if that promise were to be fundamentally affected by a legal process over which, in our view, he has probably had little control ... We strongly recommend that Mr Khadka not be deported."

Yesterday he said: "I am so keen to stay in this country because I have my family and friends. I have been brought up and educated and I have learned a lot of things here. To have to leave suddenly and go to a place where people might not understand me would be a very traumatic time for me.

"It has been quite a huge struggle to get this far. I am very pleased at the outcome."

A spokesman for the Home Office said: "The appeal was dismissed but the tribunal asked us to look at the case again and we will now consider it. We cannot say when the final decision will be made by the Home Secretary."