Asylum seeker in UK flees with the help of Facebook friends

London: An asylum seeker who claimed he was a child but was actually 20 has tried to avoid deportation by going on the run with the help of friends from a 2,500-strong Facebook group.

Rabar Hamad disappeared days before officials were to set a date to remove him from the United Kingdom.

Members of the Facebook page ‘Don't Deport 16 Year Old Rabar Hamad to Iraq' say he is being looked after by people linked to the site and the page has been used to raise money for him.

Hamad arrived in Britain in 2008 hidden in the wheel arch of a lorry and tried to evade deportation by claiming he was a 14-year-old orphan whose parents had been killed in Iraq.

But earlier this year, while he was studying for GCSEs at Breeze Hill School, in Oldham, Greater Manchester, the authorities discovered he was an adult and not protected by laws that forbid the deportation of minors.