Asylum doubt for abused British boy

A 12-year-old boy faces being repatriated from Canada to Britain despite fears that he cannot be protected from being abused by his father and paternal grandparents.

The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board ruled in January that the boy should be granted asylum because the British authorities could not guarantee his protection from abuse.

But the Canadian immigration minister Lucienne Robillard will attempt to overturn the decision.

The boy, who lives with his American mother and British step-father, is said to be a "nervous wreck" at the prospect of coming into contact with his British father, a former United Nations official. He is under "suicide watch" at a Toronto hospital.

The Foreign Office said last night that if the boy was to be sent home, officials would negotiate with social services in order that the boy would not be harmed.

Court papers make it clear that there are fears that the boy could suffer continuing abuse from his father. The papers do not name the boy or the British local authority deemed incapable of protecting him. The decision to give an incest victim refugee status for "fear of persecution in their homeland" is understood to be the first of its kind made in Canada.