Supporters celebrate as court blocks student deportation to Afghanistan

Reza Yosefi, 20, was due to be flown out of Heathrow airport in the early hours of yesterday morning but received a last-minute reprieve from the European Court of Human Rights, who ruled he should not be deported.

Mr Yosefi received a letter from the court at the detention centre where he is being held just hours before he was due to be flown to war-torn Afghanistan, and then faced a race against time to ensure border agency officials did not deport him to a country where he has no family or friends and where there are fears for his safety.

Campaigner Marishka Van Steenbergen said: "It was crazy, an absolute rollercoaster.

"The letter came through in the nick of time but at 11pm he was still locked in his room and we didn't know what was happening.

"Finally they came and told him his place on the plane had been cancelled.

"We're so happy. What this does is gives us more time to actually get some legal representation for Rez, so he has a proper chance to fight to stay in this country."

Mr Yosefi moved to Britain as an asylum seeker when he was 16, having been brought up in Iran. His parents are Afghan but left the country before he was born.

Mr Yosefi took maths and IT courses in Sheffield and hoped to study history at university – but was refused permission to stay when he turned 18.