Afghan wife facing deportation 'at risk of mental collapse'

An Afghan mother who sought sanctuary in a mosque in an attempt to stop the deportation of her family is near mental collapse. Feriba Ahmadi, who is facing removal to Germany with her husband and two children this week, has had two nervous breakdowns since fleeing Afghanistan.

Mrs Ahmadi, 24, lost three members of her family in a bomb attack on her home in the capital, Kabul, four years ago. She was badly injured in the explosion, which she believes was politically motivated. Lawyers for the family are demanding a psychiatric assessment before any decision is made to deport her. They say a mental collapse will have an immensely damaging effect on her children.

Ms Ahmadi is being held with her husband, Fardi, at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre near Heathrow and faces deportation on Thursday. Supporters managed to delay the removal of the family last Friday by having the children, Hadia, six, and Seera, four, made wards of court. But the wardship, made in highly unusual circumstances after a family friend, Soraya Walton, took the children into hiding, is to be reconsidered at the High Court in London on Thursday. If the court returns the children to their parents, the family could be deported immediately. But if the wardship order is extended, it is unlikely the parents would be forced to leave Britain without their children.

Ann Thompson, of the London law firm Hopkin, Murray, Beskin, which is representing Ms Walton in the wardship case, said the Home Office had never considered Ms Ahmadi's mental health. "What we are hoping is that once the Home Office is in possession of the full psychiatric assessment it will reconsider its position of removing the family from Britain," she said. "We are asking the High Court to look at the children's position. Their welfare will be paramount."

Mr and Mrs Ahmadi spent 28 days in the Ghausia mosque at Lye, West Midlands, after being tipped off that the Home Office were planning to deport them. Police in flak jackets forced their way in and removed the couple last month in a dawn raid that caused uproar in the Muslim community. But the children were cared for by Ms Walton. She is on the board of governors at the primary school the children attend and has acted as a translator for them because she speaks Farsi.

If the High Court decides the children should no longer be wards the family will face being sent back to Germany where they first claimed asylum but where they said they suffered racism and religious bigotry.

Mr Ahmadi is the son of an Afghan army brigadier prominent in the Soviet-supported regime overturned by the Taliban. He claims he was tortured twice and his wife beaten by religious zealots. The Ahmadis arrived in Bavaria, where they say they were so badly treated by government officials and residents that Mrs Ahmadi suffered two breakdowns.

Last January, after seven months, they sold their possessions to pay for a lorry journey to England. They made a fresh asylum claim and set up home in the West Midlands. But the Home Office – which disputes their claim of ill-treatment in Germany – says that under the Dublin Convention, the Ahmadis must make their claim in the first safe country.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Seeking asylum has to be about safe haven rather than reaching the destination of your choice."