Afghan family win right to challenge deportation

A family of Afghan asylum-seekers deported from Britain to Germany last week have been given permission to mount a legal challenge against the Government's decision to remove them.

Lawyers for Farid Ahmadi, 33, his wife Feriba, 24, and their two children convinced the High Court to hear their case that the decision to deport the family was based on inaccurate information about their immigration status in Germany. The parents were seized by police after taking refuge in a mosque in Lye, West Midlands, in July.

They were flown to Munich in a specially chartered jet after a court was told they had been given "humanitarian status", allowing them to live in the community, and were unlikely to be returned to Afghanistan.

But supporters say the Ahmadis have been given no special status and face another deportation within months, once the German authorities decide Afghanistan is officially safe for them to return. They are being kept in a detention centre.

Mr Justice Crane ordered an urgent hearing at the High Court in the week beginning 10 September but rejected a plea from the Ahmadis that they should be returned to this country pending the outcome of the case.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The court has said it wishes the case to be heard at a full hearing and we are confident that after consideration of the full facts the court will confirm that the Home Office has acted properly within UK and international law."

The Ahmadis fled Afghanistan in 2000. They first sought asylum in Germany, but travelled to Britain, claiming they had been racially abused.