PUPILS from Bournemouth School hope to travel to parliament on November 4 with a petition calling for a teenage asylum seeker to be allowed to stay in the UK.

A former pupil at the school, Andrei Bazanov faces deportation to the former Soviet republic of Moldova, from which he escaped aged 15 in the back of a lorry.

Andrei, now 19, was taken under the wing of social services when he arrived at Poole port and put into the care of a foster family who encouraged him to integrate into British life.

Within months of arriving and not speaking a word of English, the teenager passed GCSEs with flying colours, then went on to excel at A-levels and has just started a degree at Bournemouth University.

He is paying for his education himself, from savings and money earned from his part-time job, and faces a future of destitution if he is sent back to poverty-stricken Moldova.

Pupils at his former school were so incensed by his plight that they organised a petition and collected more than 1,000 signatures among themselves and from Bournemouth School for Girls.

They will have their picture taken on the steps of 10 Downing Street before handing the petition to Mid-Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke, who wants to present it to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Travelling to London will be a group of four or five Bournemouth students, Andrei and his foster father Bob Roper.

"We have to keep the momentum going for Andrei's sake," said Bob. "We haven't given up hope yet."

John Granger, head teacher at the East Way grammar, said: "The boys organised and pulled the petition together by themselves because of the strength of feeling they have over his threatened deportation.

"We are all behind Andrei 100 per cent and hope that this petition will do something to help."

Mrs Brooke said: "I am delighted about the unprecedented support for Andrei. I have also received a small petition from residents living on the Waterloo Estate in Poole, saying that he should be allowed to stay."

First published: November 3