(Lyndsey Smith, The Foreigner). Immigration authorities are to send a seven-year-old boy and his family back to Ethiopia, reports say.

Nathan Eshete was born at Stord hospital, western Norway, on 1st May 2005. His parents are from Ethiopia and have had their asylum application rejected.

The family are now set to be deported from Norway on 16th May, the day before Norwegian National Day. Nathan’s father , Asfaw Eshete, believes he faces persecution and imprisonment in Ethiopia for being politically active.

Mr Eshete said that Nathan is struggling to understand why he is being sent to a country he has never been to before.

“He asks why he should be thrown out when he is Norwegian, has friends here and does not recognise anything about Ethiopia”.

In March, the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE) told the family that their application was being looked into again, but last week they received their rejection notice.

The decision, which comes following January's Norway-Ethiopia return agreement, has been met with disappointment from a group supporting the family as well as Labour Party (Ap) leader for Bergen, Marte Mjøs Persen. Several local Labour Youth movement (AUF) politicians protested against the government's policy on 01st May.

She believes that the UNE should postpone the deportation of children until the government’s white paper, which will set out guidelines for the immigration policy, has been issued.

“I’m very disappointed that the UNE has not taken the signals to put the cases in abeyance until the then,” she said.

The government cannot intervene in individual cases at present.