Kaveh Ghandizadeh Dezfuli says he will be persecuted if sent back to Iran from London after performing with Iranian musicians critical of regime

An Iranian asylum seeker is facing imminent deportation after the Home Office rejected calls from his MP to delay his removal amid concerns over his safety.

Kaveh Ghandizadeh Dezfuli, who has lived in London for five years, is being held at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow airport until he can be put on a flight back to Tehran.

Friends of Dezfuli, 37, who has become well known in the south London folk music scene, told the Guardian he fears persecution by the Islamic republic for performing with Iranian musicians who have criticised the regime.

Matthew Pennycook, the Labour MP for Greenwich, attempted to delay Dezfuli’s removal on Friday with an appeal to James Brokenshire, the immigration minister.

But in a written answer to the MP, Brokenshire said the Home Office was not satisfied that Dezfuli would be at risk in Iran and as he had exhausted all possible appeal rights his deportation should proceed.

The musician was scheduled to be put on a flight to Tehran leaving at 4pm on Friday but Iran Air officials at Heathrow turned him away. Friends of Dezfuli, who briefly spoke to him at the airport, said they understood there was a problem with his travel documents.

He was issued with a limited removal direction in December under which an individual is not given the full details of their deportation.

Pennycook told the Guardian: “It is the abrupt manner in which the immigration authorities have acted, the apparent lack of due consideration given to the submission of fresh information and, above all, the startling lack of transparency that are of particular concern in Kaveh Ghandizadeh Dezfuli’s case.”

Dezfuli originally came to the UK on a short-term visa in 2010 to study at the London Centre of Contemporary Music. He applied for asylum in 2013 on the grounds of his imputed political opinions. He had performed on the Persian-language satellite TV channel Manoto, which his lawyer said was associated with exiled opponents of the Islamic republic.

Dezfuli’s asylum claim was first refused by an immigration tribunal in 2014, and an appeal was rejected later that year. Two further applications to appeal were turned down in January and April 2015.

In November he applied to make a fresh appeal on the basis he had performed on television with musicians opposed to the Iranian regime, including Hassan Sattar, who was a favourite singer of the Pahlavi royal family before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Dezfuli was summoned to submit evidence in person on 15 December at the Home Office in Liverpool where his submission was rejected and he was detained and transferred to an immigration removal centre in Lincoln.

His lawyer, Ali Rahimi, said: “Iran is a theocracy – anything viewed as breaching Islamic rules and regulations would be interpreted as opposing the fundamental basis of the regime. I would strongly argue that appearing on an exile TV station performing music that cannot be played in Iran is displaying political opposition.”

Rahimi said deporting Dezfuli also risked the safety of his family in Tehran, who have been harassed by the Iranian authorities because of his TV performances in the UK. “His father is a former political prisoner and victim of torture and a pro-democracy activist,” the lawyer added.

Dezfuli, a bass guitarist, plays in two London bands and is a member of Blackheath folk club in south London. His oldest friend in the UK, Dave Poke, who performs with him in the band Coridor, said: “I’m scared he’s going to be arrested at the airport in Tehran and harmed or worse.”

Another friend, video producer Kay Evans, said: “With Kaveh having been involved musically with a London-based TV channel that is frowned upon in Iran, I am extremely concerned about his physical and mental wellbeing upon any return there. Reports of intimidation and alleged torture by Iranian authorities make me afraid for this kind, gentle, unassuming and highly talented musician.”