The Home Office has U-turned on plans to deport a leading scientist carrying out groundbreaking research into affordable forms of solar energy and allowed him and his family to remain in the UK.

Initially, the Home Office rejected the asylum claim lodged by Dr Nadarajah Muhunthan, 47, who has been living in the UK since 2018 with his wife, Sharmila, 42, and their three children, aged 13, nine and five.

Muhunthan, who is working on thin-film photovoltaic devices used to generate solar energy, was given a prestigious Commonwealth Rutherford fellowship. The award allowed him to come to the UK for two years to research and develop the technology. He was based at the University of Bristol. His wife got a job caring for elderly people in a nursing home.

The couple’s eldest daughter, Gihaniya, has received outstanding school reports in the UK with a 100% attendance rate and been particularly praised for her achievements in science. She hopes to study to be a doctor when she is older.

The family are Tamils, a group that has experienced persecution in Sri Lanka.

However, just weeks after the Guardian highlighted the case, the Home Office changed its mind and has now granted Muhunthan and his family refugee status.

Muhunthan thanked the Home Office for their decision. “The Home Office has saved my life and my family’s lives. Now I will be able to continue my research without fear,” he said.

After reading the previous Guardian article about the case, Prof David J Firmin, head of the electro-chemistry and solar team at the University of Bristol where Muhunthan was conducting research into ways to make solar energy panels more effective and affordable, wrote to the Home Office at the end of October expressing his “deepest concern”.

He said Muhunthan’s work was making a significant contribution to efforts to decarbonise the energy generation sector.

In November 2019, Muhunthan returned to his home country for a short visit to see his sick mother. While he was there, he was arrested and persecuted by the Sri Lankan government. He managed to escape and returned to the UK, where he claimed asylum on the basis of what he had experienced on his visit to Sri Lanka. After his scholarship expired in February 2020, neither he nor his wife were permitted to continue working.

The family’s lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC solicitors, welcomed the Home Office’s change of heart. He said:“This is an important victory which recognises there is systematic torture of Tamils going on in Sri Lanka. This scientist and his family will all be assets to the UK.”

THE GUARDIAN

A 15-year-old boy is in custody after three students died and eight were injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, authorities said.

The Oxford High School students killed were a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, Oakland County Undersheriff Michael G. McCabe said at a news conference.

Eight others were shot, one of whom is believed to be a teacher, McCabe said. Of the eight injured, two are currently in surgery and the other six are in stable condition with various gunshot wounds, McCabe said.

“I think this is every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who added that shootings at schools are “a uniquely American problem that we need to address.”

“My heart goes out to the families. This is an unimaginable tragedy. I hope we can all rise to the occasion and wrap our arms around the families, the affected children and school personnel and this community,” Whitmer said.

The suspect, a sophomore at the school, was taken into custody without incident five minutes after authorities responded to the shooting, McCabe said. His parents have hired an attorney and have not permitted that he talk to police, McCabe said.