A CHILDREN’S rights expert has slammed the “inhumane” treatment of two asylum seeker brothers described as a “credit” to Scotland.

Tracy Kirk said the UK Government was “actively breaching” the UN Convention of the Rights on the Child with regard to Somer Umeed Bakhsh, 16, and Areeb, 14.

The Glasgow Caledonian University law lecturer said the brothers, who are “star pupils with bright futures ahead of them”, are being “failed” by the state. Her intervention came as the outgoing Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Very Rev Susan Brown, condemned the UK Government for refusing to grant the family legal asylum.

Somer and Areeb have been living in limbo since 2012 when they fled to Glasgow from Faisalabad in Pakistan with their mother, Parveen, and their father, Maqsood, who was subjected to death threats from Islamic extremists because of his Christian faith.

“Humanity and compliance with children’s rights is completely omitted from the current Home Office system,” said Kirk, who recently met the family at Possilpark Parish Church in Glasgow to hear their story.

“It is high time that they were given the prominence they deserve and the compliance the UK has agreed to by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. At present, the UK is actively breaching the internationally recognised rights of children in our treatment of asylum and immigration cases. We are failing children and young people who live in Scotland and wish to make Scotland their home.

"The inhumane treatment and the Home Office’s inability to consider children’s rights in the manner in which they should is creating dreadful uncertainty. At a time when many young people are looking forward to an exciting new chapter of their lives as they enter adulthood, these two young boys are being held back by the inaction of the Home Office.”

Kirk said it was hard to imagine waiting for a letter or a knock at the door, living by a deadline which makes no sense and cannot be justified. She added: “It is resulting in children, parents and their extended families suffering from increased mental health issues.”

On Saturday at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh, which was attended by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Brown said she was “angered and exasperated” at the way people genuinely seeking safety were treated.

“God’s heart is big enough to hold everyone and ours needs to be too,” she said. “This family are from Pakistan and Christians are under threat there. They have been in Scotland for seven years and the boys are well integrated into their school and are much loved students. The whole family are very involved in their local church and Maqsood is an elder and a commissioner to this Assembly.”

The family insist there is nowhere in Pakistan where they would be safe because they have been marked by Islamic extremists who have killed people they know. Brown, minister of Dornoch Cathedral in the Highlands, said: “I have been to Pakistan. Admittedly only one small corner of it but every church we went to, there was an armed guard and any posters advertising my visit could only be put up on the day for fear of threat yet our Government says Pakistan is a safe place for Christians.”

The family have been supported by their minister, the Rev Linda Pollock of Possilpark Parish Church, who began an online petition which has been signed by nearly 90,000 people. It was handed over to the Home Office last August and shortly afterwards Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes told the family’s MP Paul Sweeney that the case would be reviewed. A decision has yet to be made.

Nicola Sturgeon said Somer and Areeb were “an absolute credit to their parents, their school, their community and to Scotland.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and every case is assessed on its individual merits.

“We are reviewing this case and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”