Arriving in Scotland when he was only three years old, Giorgi Kakava speaks with an unmistakable Glaswegian accent and has no memory of his birth country, Georgia.

His mother Sopio Baikhadze fled the former Soviet Union republic with her son fearing that gangsters, whom her late husband owed a debt to, would either kill or traffick the boy. 

The pair began to build a life in Glasgow until last year when, while waiting on the verdict of her asylum appeal, Giorgi’s mother died after a long-term illness.

Her dying wish was her son be allowed to stay in the city and continue to grow up a “Scottish boy”.

Giorgi, now 11, who lives with his grandmother, is preparing to start high school in August.  But there are clouds on the horizon. His friends and family fear he could be deported in just eight months’ time.

Now senior church leaders are lobbying prime minister candidate and Home Secretary Sajid Javid to put an end to the saga, urging him to grant a permanent stay. 

Last year more than 90,000 people signed an online petition appealing for the pair to be allowed to stay permanently. 

The schoolboy was granted temporary permission to stay in the UK until February 2020, while grandmother Ketino Baikhadze has asylum until December of the same year. 

There is now fresh pressure on Home Secretary Sajid Javid to show “moral courage” and stop Giorgi from being forced to leave the only country he has ever known as home. 

An appeal by Church of Scotland minister, Rev Brian Casey, said he hoped that Mr Javid would act with compassion and common sense.

Mr Javid, who was worked as a banker before entering frontline politics, has made great play of the fact he is the son of immigrants in a bid to establish himself as an alternative to other Tory leadership candidates. 

Mr Casey, minister of Springburn Parish Church in Glasgow, has written to him, urging him to show mercy to the boy and his grandmother, who are living day by day under a dark cloud of uncertainty. 

“The UK is renowned as a land of welcome and opportunity – a fact not lost on you as the son of an immigrant who came to this country and worked every hour he could to ensure that his children had the best,” he wrote in an direct appeal to Mr Javid.

“Your rise to the top of UK politics speaks volumes about the future immigration aspirations of the UK in seeking talented immigrants from non-EU countries. 

“Georgia is one of those countries and I can assure you that Ketino is a hardworking and proud woman, a quality I admire greatly and one which has clearly been imbued in Giorgi.

“I would respectfully ask that you show the moral courage of leadership and urgently review this case and grant Giorgi and his grandmother permanent leave to remain in the UK.”

Mr Casey added that it was in the Home Secretary’s gift to remove doubt from their lives.

“In a year when this amazing boy starts high school, please show the public that you are as committed as your father was to see that those who come from humble beginnings can reach the pinnacle of their potential,” he added.

Mr Casey’s intervention comes as faith groups, including Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees, prepare to meet the Home Secretary in London next week for a round table meeting.

It bears resemblance to the plight of the Umeed Bakhsh family, a case the Home Office are yet to rule on.

Brothers Somer and Areeb, who are 16 and 14 respectively, and their parents, Maqsood and Parveen, fled to Glasgow in 2012 from Faisalabad in Pakistan.

Mr Umeed Bakhsh was subjected to death threats from Islamic extremists due to his Christian faith.

Tracy Kirk, a children’s rights expert and law academic at Glasgow Caledonian University, met Giorgi and his grandmother earlier this week. She said his rights as a child were being breached and deporting a grieving boy to a country he does not know is “clearly” not in his best interests.

Ms Kirk added that the UK has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child but is actively ignoring it.

“The Home Office seems to show an utter disregard for children’s rights at every stage of their asylum and immigration processes,” she added.

Ms Kirk said meeting Giorgi and his grandmother at Springburn Parish Church was an “extremely powerful” experience.

“Put bluntly, the temporary reprieves which the Home Office seems to live by – delaying a decision on asylum by one year and then another and another is not children’s rights compliant. 

“It is leading to children living in fear as to what will happen to them.”

Ms Kirk said all children should feel safe and loved.

“But the Home Office procedures are leading to children feeling scared, anxious and uncertain,” she added.

“We cannot allow this to continue.”