What a reaction!
Three teenage brothers received a huge standing ovation on their return to school at Colaiste Eamann Ris in Cork.
The brothers, Zubair, Umair and Mutjuba Khan, along with their other family members have been seeking asylum in Ireland from Saudi Arabia for the last two years.
They were told of plans to deport this month but have been granted a reprieve in their deportation case.
The three young brother as well as their older brother UCC Sanctuary scholarship student Hamza, their sister Shazadi and parents Mubeen and Hina were set to be deported earlier this month.
Staff and students at Colaiste Eamann Ris as well as the wider Cork City community are delighted the Khan family case is being looked into and hope the family will be able to remain in Ireland.
16-year-old Umair told RTE that his goal is to enter medical school after his Leaving Cert;
“I want to complete my education and do medicine. If I lose this opportunity I won’t get any opportunity to go to college. I liked work experience. I was in Tesco in Paul Street (in Cork) and I did shelving. Transition year is very exciting.”
Those at the Cork school have been protesting the deportation and have even set up a petition called Keep The Khans on Change.org.
To date the petition has received over four thousand signatures from those living in Cork and the rest of the country.
The Khan family say that they fled to Ireland after new laws in Saudi Arabia were imposed on those not originally from the country (both Mubeen and Hina Khan are from Pakistan).
Due to these new rules which included a large tax on non Saudi natives, the boys had to leave school and get jobs but even that did not help after another law introduced in 2017 meant their father lost his job.
A demonstration that was planned to protest the deportation has been cancelled in favour of a celebration for the family at the good news.
