AT the end of last week I popped down to Bournemouth Square to write a report for this newspaper on the campaign to save Moldavian student Andrei Bazanov from deportation.

The campaign was the brainchild of his former fellow students at Bournemouth School for Boys, who were standing outside Debenhams with copies of their petition for the public to sign.

And, I'm glad to say, many hundreds of you did.

By lending your name you'll be trying to keep in this country a young man who came here when he was 14 - orphaned, impoverished and totally alone.

By his own efforts and those of his foster family and school, Andrei managed to get excellent grades in four A-levels and is now studying for a degree in ICT, funded by his own hard work.

The government, however, wants to send him back to Moldova, a grim, struggling Eastern European republic, where 80 per cent of the population is unemployed and where the only relative Andrei knows is his mum, who is living in a mental hospital. Anyway, back to the young men of Bournemouth School for Boys.

Suited, booted and politely spoken, they were a credit to themselves, their parents and their school.

No doubt they'll cringe at all that, but it's true - and I was deeply impressed.

What didn't impress me, however, was the lesson they must be learning from the government's cold-hearted, cack-handed handling of the Andrei affair.

Like everyone else in their generation, they've been bombarded with the message that they've got to work hard, get on, and that being a model citizen will bring its own rewards.

Only, of course, in Andrei's case it hasn't made the blindest bit of difference.

If only Andrei had thought to get himself a job minding Kimberly Quinn's nipper. If only he had lived off the state and preached religious hatred in the streets of London, like Abu Hamza. If only he'd hijacked a plane, like the Afghans, or gone Awol into this country's criminal underbelly.

But he didn't.

He was honest and diligent and looking to repay us for the opportunities we've given him, which is the way of most immigrants.

David Blunkett ignored the pleas to let him stay - too many nannies' visas to worry about? - but we've got Charles Clarke, now. I've met Charles Clarke, interviewed him even, and was frankly underwhelmed. Put it this way, he's not jolly.

But he could rocket in my estimation and in the estimation of everyone who reads this newspaper probably, by applying compassion, common sense and decency to the case of Andrei Bazanov.

Deporting Andrei won't improve the life of one single person in this country. Giving the order to allow him to remain will take Mr Clarke two minutes.

Andrei's case may be a mere paper on the pile to you, but it means a lot to us down here.

Go on, Home Secretary - make our day.