The Home Office has been ordered to find a five-year-old boy and his mother who were deported to Nigeria and return them to Britain.
Rafeeq Atanda, who was born in the UK and brought up in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, was flown back to West Africa along with his mother Bola Fatumbi in January after their long-running asylum claim failed.
But - in a landmark ruling which could undermine Theresa May's so-called 'deport first, appeal later' immigration policy - a senior judge has now ordered the pair be returned to Britain while the case is judicially reviewed.
Mr Justice Cranston ordered that the Home Office foot the bill for tracking down Rafeeq and Ms Fatumbi, 45, and bringing them back to the UK.
The Home Office was today refused permission to appeal against Mr Justice Cranston's order, which appeal judges found he was 'fully entitled' to make.
Ms Fatumbi says she first came to Britain in 1991. She was later found to have left the country and returned at least once before she was caught and questioned by immigration officers after she was found working illegally in a shop in London.
Her application for leave to remain in the UK was rejected in 2008 and in the same year she was jailed for nine months for using a false Dutch passport.
Rafeeq was born in Britain in 2009 and his mother says his father left her when she was two months pregnant and she has not seen him since.
In 2010, the mother and son applied for asylum on the basis that the mother would be persecuted as a single mother or even labelled a witch if she was returned to Nigeria.
Their claim was rejected, as was an appeal, and the mother and son - who has been to nursery and primary school in Britain - were deported in January.
Mr Justice Cranston, a former Labour MP who is now a High Court judge, has now found the Home Office had not made the boy's welfare their 'primary consideration'.
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