to ask for ideas on how to raise awareness about this 6YO's plight-stranded in Tripoli

[WishICouldHelp]

I've name changed for this as I've also posted about it on Facebook and don't want anyone putting my username together with my real name.

I know the lawyer in this case-he's taken it on probono and is trying to raise awareness of this boy's situation. If anyone works for a paper/charity that might be interested in helping or knows someone else who might be able to help please PM me and I can put you in touch. It's so heartbreaking, and in a world that's pretty heartbreaking itself at the moment. His mother is distraught as you'd expect.

6 year old cancer patient stranded in Tripoli after evacuation

Any ideas for raising awareness/getting him back to his mother gratefully received.

Bump.

Poor boy. Contact the newspapers? Populist ones like Sun, Mirror, Mail? Also start a twitter or facebook campaign?

That's awful.

I have emailed Daily Mail. I know they're awful but this is right up their street.

Do you think there's any danger in it being in the papers? He's worried that it needs coverage in order to raise awareness and hopefully get him brought home but that too much coverage/western interest might make him a target for kidnapping. I don't know how likely that is but I can see why he's worried-the poor boy is so vulnerable.

The DM is actually pretty good at running campaigns isn't it-despite being awful as you say!

By putting it openly on a huge website, his vulnerability/privacy is probably totally compromised (one poster says she's already emailed the media) so I hope you had the family's blessing to trawl for ideas so very publicly.

Basically, she needs a different lawyer. But a dual national (assuming father is Libyan) does not automatically receive consular assistance when in their home country (ie country if second nationality), so even if she had applied for a passport to demonstrate British nationality when he was born (or when father vanished) she might have been unable to arrange an evacuation - does the current Government in Tripoli permit dual nationals? For if they see him as Libyan in Libya, I doubt anything can be done

He asked me to put it here after talking to the mother about it. I would never have done it otherwise.

I don't know about the father's nationality though I assume he is Libyan as you say. That's frightening that maybe nothing can be done at all

If enough of a fuss is kicked up, all sorts of normal rules can be 'bent' on compassionate grounds.

Is he still receiving treatment? That's key.

Also, any idea how long before Brits might return, and are other expats still there?

If the mother is in UK now, is she with family, and can their local MP help her tackle IPS (or whatever it's called) and get her son's status sorted out at this end?

Where does she want to live with her son in the long run? What admin hoops must be jumped through to make that happen?

All good qus and I don't know the answers I'm afraid, though I believe he doesn't have access to the treatment he needs at the moment. I'll send those qus to the lawyer-I presume he's already thought of them (hope so!) but it can't hurt.

Sorry I am confused and stupid, why is his mother not with him?

Poor boy though, horrible situation.

I asked that too-I am not entirely clear but I don't think she had a choice. And she didn't want her son in an immigration detention centre (basically prisons) so the plan was that she would come to the uk to try and sort the paperwork? And he would stay with the grandparents and then he would follow once the paperwork had come through. She believed it was better that way as there was less instability for him and obviously this situation was never envisaged.