A DORSET MP says she's very impressed with the character and achievements of a teenage asylum seeker in Poole and will now take on his case to try and persuade officials to let him stay.

Annette Brooke, MP for mid Dorset and north Poole, had her first meeting with 19-year-old Andrei Bazanov and foster parents at the weekend.

She says she was hoping to raise a question about the youngster during Prime Minister's Question Time, but failing that was planning among other things to write to David Blunkett.

Former classmates at Bournemouth School have also been compiling a 1,000-name petition, while their teachers and lecturers at Bournemouth University have been writing letters of support to Mr Blair and Mr Blunkett.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Andrei arrived in the UK as a terrified 15-year-old in the back of a lorry at Poole having fled a children's home in the tiny former Soviet republic of Moldova.

Within six months of arriving and without speaking a word of English he excelled at GCSE's and later A-levels, found a part-time job, made loads of friends and fully integrated into the British way of life.

Only last month he started a degree in software engineering management at Bournemouth.

But the Home Office says none of this is relevant and now wants to send him back to Moldova.

Mrs Brooke said: "He's a very impressive young man. I'm hoping to get in a supplementary question today to Mr Blunkett, asking him what plans there are for unaccompanied children such as Andrei coming into the country, who then go on to excel academically.

"I'm going to write to Mr Blunkett anyway as part of my Children's Bill drive for better treatment of children of asylum seekers."

Andrei's foster dad, Bob Roper, said he wished people were better informed about the state of affairs Moldova.

"From a population of four million, 600,000 have left the country to find work, because there simply isn't any employment," he said.

"This is what they want to send Andrei back to - no future and destitution."

First published: October 19