Teenage brothers Somer and Areeb Umeed Bakhsh fled from Faisalabad to Glasgow with their family in 2012, after their father received death threats from Islamic extremists and two friends were murdered in the region on account of their Christian faith.
After being repeatedly denied asylum in the UK, the Church of Scotland launched two online petitions urging the UK government not to deport the brothers to their birth country where blasphemy carries the death penalty.
As a result of the campaign, which gathered more than 94,000 signatures, the home office has now granted the Bakhsh family “limited leave to remain” in the UK until February, 2022.
Somer Umeed Bakhsh has expressed his gratitude at the government’s decision: “We have gone through a tough time and I am really happy that we now have the freedom to stay in the country we love.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because the threat of deportation was always in the back of my mind.
“Scotland is my home, I have grown up here, all my friends are here and I feel like a Scottish boy.
“I am very thankful to everyone who has supported my family and the people who signed the petitions – we could not have got to this point without you.
“But I am disappointed that we will have to apply to the Home Office for an extension in just two and a half years.”