A Syrian family fear they will be torn apart after the Home Office said their young son must be deported from the UK.

The Mirzo family were reunited with their son Mohammed in April after more than four years apart, but the Home Office say he must return to Bulgaria where he first arrived in the EU.

His family say he was badly mistreated in Bulgaria, a country that has been strongly criticised for its treatment of refugees and migrants.

Mohammed Mirzo, 19, is currently being held in an immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire and could be deported at any moment.

A keen footballer, Mohammed was separated from the rest of his family when he was aged 16 and ended up in Bulgaria after they fled from Aleppo.

He then made it to Cardiff where he was saw his mum for the first time in two years and met his newborn baby brother for the first time.

Ali Mirzo, Mohammed’s father, said: “Mohammed’s mother and I are desperately worried about our son. We visited him in the detention centre this week and his medical situation is already getting worse.

“His greatest fear is being removed to Bulgaria, where he had a such traumatic experience when he was still just a child.

“His life was turned upside-down when he became a refugee at the age of 16 and he lived through suffering in Bulgaria and Germany that no child should experience.

“Not only will he be alone and vulnerable in Bulgaria, but he has threatened to harm himself in the past, and we are concerned that his current situation will lead him to do this.”

After around five months in Bulgaria, Mohammed travelled to Germany, where his family say he was attacked by a neo-Nazi gang suffering a broken shoulder which has still not fully healed.

When Mohammed made it to Cardiff he applied for refugee status, but during one Home Office meeting he was detained and held at Parc Prison for two days before being sent to the Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre in Oxfordshire.

His family say he could be deported to Bulgaria before November 2, prompting a petition which has gained almost 6,000 signatures in three days.

According to human rights charity Amnesty, in 2016/17 Bulgaria failed to provide “all required services” and “access to proper procedures” for the growing number of migrants and refugees in the country.

Mohammed’s brother Salah, 21, said: “Almost every hour we have to call him to give him hope.

“If he is sent to Bulgaria I don’t think anything good will happen.

“The situation will be very bad, and it’s like they took a piece of my mother’s heart.”

Mohammed’s father Ali, a teacher by profession, arrived in Cardiff in 2015 and gradually brought the rest of his family to join him.

Settling in Lakeside, Ali set up the Royal Coast Cafe in the city centre and volunteers as an interpreter for child refugees.

Ali said: “We are so grateful for the welcome that Cardiff has offered to my family and to other Syrian refugees.

“Not only are we safe here, but I have been able to set up a business and make a future for our family.

“I have also been able to make a contribution to society, as a taxpayer, an employer, and a volunteer with community groups.

“We have been given the kind of warm Welsh welcome that we will never forget, but that only makes us fear the situation my son will face in Bulgaria if he is deported there even more.”

Ali’s two teenage daughters have settled at Cardiff High and Llanishen High schools and he and his wife have a young baby boy.

The family said they are appealing the Home Office decision.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, but it is only fair that we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.

“Asylum seekers should claim in the first safe country they arrive in.

“Where there is evidence that an asylum seeker is the responsibility of another European country we will seek to return them there.”

The petition can be signed at www.change.org/p/amber-rudd-mp-don-t-send-mohammed-mirzo-to-bulgaria-the-mirzo-family-belong-together-in-cardiff