Leader comment: Have a heart Home Office

the story of Mozaffar Saberi and Rezvan Habibimarand, residents of Edinburgh for 40 years, is heartbreaking.

Mozaffar Saberi, 83, and his wife Rezvan Habibimarand , 73, are battling to stay in the UK

As we told on Saturday, they are facing deportation back to Iran despite having four British children, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild here. One of their grandchildren has severe autism and they help care for him.

Another is Edinburgh Rugby star Damien Hoyland who has made an appeal for the Home Office to have a last-minute change of heart.

We very much hope they do.

While we certainly accept the need to have rules around immigration, there must also be compassion and an understanding that no two cases or families are the same.

To take such drastic action after 40 years – whether official procedures have been followed or not – and to remove a couple who take nothing from society but appear to contribute so much, seems as unnecessary as it is painfully cruel.

There is no justification to break up a close-knit loving family like this, and we very much hope the couple’s latest appeal to the Home Office is successful.

Mozaffer and Rezvan are Edinburgh residents. They face being torn from their family network to a country where they have no-one. Have a heart Home Office.