A teacher who fostered a Romanian orphan spoke today of his anger at not being able get a permanent visa for his foster son.

Stuart Newton said he was furious the application for David Blunkett's lover's nanny had been fast-tracked while he and his foster son Vasile Onica had battled unsuccessfully for seven years for the same privilege.

Filipino childminder Leoncia Casalme was welcomed indefinitely into the country in a matter of days but Vasile, 24, still only has a temporary visa.

Dr Newton, 59, rescued Vasile, now 24, from a squalid orphanage in Romania in 1997.

Vasile had lived in appalling conditions for ten years and had become disabled after contracting polio.

Dr Newton, who lives in Peacehaven, brought him to Sussex and made him part of his family.

Vasile went from speaking no English to gaining GCSEs, a GNVQ in business studies, an advanced qualification in information technology and is now studying for an HND in computing at Brighton University.

But he has had to live with the constant threat of being deported back to his homeland, where he fears he would end up living on the streets and be treated as a second-class citizen due to his disability.

Dr Newton, a teacher at Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College, said he was astonished when he heard how Ms Casalme was routinely granted indefinite leave by the Home Office to remain.

An inquiry is investigating allegations Mr Blunkett helped fast-track the visa application on behalf of his former lover Kimberly Quinn.

Dr Newton said: "Call me naive, but I really would like to believe the Home Secretary.

"I would actually like to believe that he is a man of integrity, running a department that is efficient, which applies rules impartially.

"And I would like to believe in Santa Claus.

"At long last I am growing up to believe that the world is not like this.

"For the past seven years, I have been trying to get something more than a temporary visa for my foster son.

"We have had to make do with temporary student visas.

"We requested and were denied sympathetic consideration of Vasile's case just a few months, it appears, before Ms Casalme was given leave to remain.

"Meanwhile, Vasile and I soldier on with a temporary visa.

"Doubtless when the current one runs out we shall have to go through all the normal battles, with the institutional discourtesy and amazing inefficiency of the Immigration Department.

"Not for us the streamlined processes available to Ms Casalme, the nanny.

"Vasile, with his technical skills, is still not receiving an urgent response, even after seven years.

"When his visa runs out, I imagine that he will be threatened with deportation, even though he has nowhere to go to if he returns to Romania."

It was only the generosity of Argus readers that prevented Vasile being deported two years ago. They helped raise almost £8,000 for tuition fees so he could be granted a student visa.

Dr Newton said he had lost faith in a system that threatened to break up a family and send a talented young man back to an uncertain future.

A Home Office spokesman said: "There is an ongoing inquiry into allegations surrounding Mr Blunkett and while this continues we are not commenting on these claims.

"The visa application system is there for everyone who comes through this country. It is a fair system and if someone is turned down, there is a reason behind that decision."