Police arrested six people on suspicion of attempted murder in relation to the attack on a Kurdish Iranian at a bus stop in Shrublands Avenue, Croydon, on Friday.
The Kurdish Iranian was waiting for a bus along with two friends when the group of attackers asked him where he was from. When he told them he was an asylum seeker they chased him down the road and kicked him as he lay on the ground.
A number of bystanders and eyewitnesses attempted to intervene but the teenager sustained serious head and facial injuries and has a fractured skull and a blood clot on his brain. He is in a serious but stable condition at a south London hospital.