Headline

13-year-old Boy Sues UK Parents For ‘Deportation’ To Africa Over ‘Gang Involvement’

Published

7 months ago

November 30, 2024

A 13-year-old boy has taken legal action against his parents, accusing them of “brutally” taking him overseas and enrolling him in a boarding school before abandoning him there.

The boy, whose identity is protected, contacted the British Consulate and a child welfare organization after his parents registered him at an African school before returning to the United Kingdom.

The boy’s legal team argued that his parents “physically and emotionally abandoned” him due to concerns over his potential involvement in gangs in London, an accusation the teenager denies vehemently.

At a hearing that began on Tuesday, the boy’s lawyers requested a judge order his return to the UK, where he has lived since birth.

However, the boy’s father’s lawyers argued that the decision to send him abroad was a legitimate exercise of parental responsibility.

Deirdre Fottrell KC, representing the boy, stated that his parents’ actions were driven by the belief that there was no alternative way to address the perceived risks than by removing him from the country.

She added, “The steps that this boy, not yet 14, has taken to try and remedy the awful situation he finds himself in are extreme.”

Fottrell further stated, “There is clear evidence that he is being harmed emotionally, psychologically, and possibly physically in the environment in which he has been placed,” describing the parents’ decision to leave him in such a situation as “extraordinary.”

She emphasized that the boy’s claim of not being involved in any gang was “categorical,” and the risks his parents feared—such as being stabbed or shot—were not a likely outcome should he return home.

The boy was described in court as “very polite and articulate,” with a passion for football and cooking.

According to Fottrell, he was enrolled in a school abroad without warning or consultation with him, under the pretence of caring for an ill relative. Upon arrival, his parents left him there.

Fottrell described the act as “stark and quite brutal,” citing the boy’s reports of “inadequate” food and tuition, as well as mistreatment. She also highlighted that the boy was “patently extremely unhappy” in Africa, finding the experience “humiliating” and stating that his English friends mocked him for being “deported.”

In addition, Fottrell mentioned that the boy’s mother admitted to physically chastising and abusing him while in the UK. The boy is reportedly “upset, confused, and distressed despite acknowledging his imperfections.”

Judge Mr. Justice Hayden, during the hearing, pointed out that the boy was subjected to “incredibly restrictive” measures in the UK, such as having his location monitored through his phone, which he suggested would be “pretty unbearable for most 14-year-old boys and girls.”

Rebecca Foulkes, representing the boy’s father, mentioned that social workers had reported issues in managing the boy’s behaviour before he left the UK.

They noted instances of physical aggression from the mother when trying to manage his behaviour.

Foulkes also shared that the boy had frequently been late to class, stayed out late, and had been suspected of engaging in criminal activities.

The school had concerns about his social vulnerability and had observed him with expensive clothes and phones, while his phone contained pictures of knives and friends holding knives.

Foulkes stated that from the father’s perspective, there had been a clear deterioration in the boy’s behaviour, leaning toward criminal activities.

She argued that the boy’s parents had “real concerns about where he was and who he was with.”

Foulkes further stated that, in her view, “high-quality care and education in a boundary setting” was available in Africa, where the risks the boy faced in the UK were not present. She believed that the boy’s potential would be wasted if he were to return to the UK.

The court also heard that the parents’ decision should be respected, as it was made in their son’s best interest, even if it did not align with his wishes.

The hearing before Mr. Justice Hayden is set to continue at a later date.

PUNCH

Headline

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

6 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

6 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.

Headline

We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

Published

10 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.

He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.

Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.

“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.

“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.

In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.

“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.

The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.

A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.