A REFUGEE who has lived in the UK for more than a decade has been sent back to Afghanistan.

Reza Maghsoudi has been in an immigration detention centre since October while his friends in Salisbury and lawyers fought to keep him in the country.

But on Monday he was given ten minutes to pack a bag and told he would be put on a flight later that day.

It comes despite Salisbury MP John Glen asking immigration minister Caroline Nokes to postpone the deportation.

Friend Derri Southwood said Reza was now in Kabul and “absolutely terrified”.

She said: “They scooped him up, there was no warning - they never even informed his solicitors.

“They gave him ten minutes to pack up his room and took him to Heathrow airport.”

“They don’t give them any notice. He was sitting in his room reading a book and ten minutes later his bags were packed.”

Derri said Reza’s legal team had planned to seek an injunction against his deportation, but had to wait until they had been granted legal aid.

“The funding came in at 11.54am and two minutes later Reza was told he was leaving,” she said.

Derri called Mr Glen, who she said had previously “done his utmost to help”, but he was unable to stop Reza being deported.

Mr Glen told the Journal he was “deeply disappointed” by the Home Office decision to send Reza back to Afghanistan.

“My strong belief is that legal advice [Reza] received over many years has been patchy in its quality, and therefore made it very difficult to convince a minister that the compassionate response was required,” he said.

He added that he “remains ready to assist as and when any opportunity arises”.

Reza, now aged 27, fled the Taliban in his home country aged 13, and lived in Salisbury for two years before being arrested and taken to a detention centre at the end of October.

His legal team are now in “emergency meetings”, Derri said, hoping they can secure an injunction which will mean the Home Office has to bring him back to the UK.

If not, he will be given accommodation in a Kabul hostel for a fortnight before being “kicked out”.

“He has no support, no family, no friends, nothing,” Derri said.

“It is totally outrageous.”

Derri said Reza was “well known by so many people in the city”, and described him as “a pleasant, totally harmless, sociable person”.

“He tried to blend in with Salisbury society. He has been in touch with St Thomas’s Church and he tried to do a bit there. He was hoping to do some work with Babylon School of English.”

More than 80,000 people had signed a change.org petition urging the Home Office to stop Reza’s deportation.