Deported family of Afghans not allowed to return to UK

A family of Afghan asylum-seekers who were seized during a police raid on a mosque and deported to Germany have lost their appeal to be allowed to return to Britain.

The family were told by the Immigration Appellate Authority that though their removal from the UK had been traumatic it was "a necessary part of an effective immigration policy". Lawyers for Farid Ahmadi, 33, his wife, Feriba, 25, and their children Hadia, seven, and Seear, five, are considering an appeal.

The family fled Afghanistan in 2000, alleging torture and human rights abuses. They first sought asylum in Germany but later fled to the UK where they made a similar application, saying they had faced religious and racial bigotry in Germany.

In August the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, ordered the family sent back to Germany after police and immigration officials seized them in a raid on a mosque in Lye, near Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

They were flown back to Germany but a month later the High Court in London declared the move unlawful. During the appeal in Hatton Cross, west London, the Ahmadis repeated allegations of torture and said they had suffered ill health as a result of their deportation.

But the adjudicator Judith Davidson said Mr Ahmadi was "singularly untruthful", that the torture claims were fabricated and that complaints of poor conditions in German asylum camps were exaggerated.