Refugee children reprieved

Two children and their older sister who fled Zaire after seeing their father murdered and were due to be deported from Britain have won last minute reprieves.

After extensive media coverage the Home Office agreed yesterday to a fresh application for asylum for Mdunza Eseko, nine, and her brother Biango Mbunba, twelve.

On the same day an application to the High Court for a judicial review of the case Nkose Bugundi, 30, was given the go- ahead. Ms Bugundi was released from Campsfield detention centre near Oxford yesterday and was reunited with her brother and sister. All three have had their temporary admission to the UK extended to 11 February.

They fled from Zaire in May 1993 after their father, a political opponent of the military government, was tortured then killed in the family home by soldiers.

The Home Office ordered Ms Bugundi's deportation last year and ruled that as she was considered her brother's and sister's guardian they must also go back.