Refugees 'accepted', then deported

The chaotic state of Britain's immigration system was highlighted yesterday by the disclosure that written offers from the Home Office to asylum-seekers allowing them to stay in the country were regularly being withdrawn.

The Independent is aware of at least six families who received letters from government officials saying they had "leave to remain" in Britain – only for the promise to be snatched away. Refugee support groups last night accused officials of perpetrating "mental torture".

Reyhan Duru, a Turkish asylum-seeker who is due to be deported next Tuesday with her husband, Senol, and their one-year-old son, Kadir, was told on 22 February that they could stay. She said: "Our first feeling was one of security for the family – that the danger of having to go back to Turkey had been taken away. We were so happy. All the stress was taken from our shoulders." But the Home Office letter had been sent in error. Officials turned down the family's claim and placed Mr Duru, a Turkish Kurd who claims to have been tortured for supporting the Kurdish PKK party, in detention at a centre in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Mrs Duru, 28, who lives in London, said: "We believed that human rights existed in the UK and that we would be treated here like humans. Now I get the feeling that they are playing with us and there is humiliation everywhere we go."

The family arrived in Britain in November 2000. Fourteen months later they received a letter from the Home Office. It said: "Following confirmation that your application for asylum has been determined and the confirmation that you have been granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom, I am writing to advise that you no longer qualify for support under ... the Immigration and Asylum Act."

But five weeks later Mr Duru was detained.

The Home Office errors have dismayed staff at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, which is based in London. A spokesman said: "This is a form of mental torture. For those desperate to build a future in this country, the granting of leave to remain is the first step. The effect can be palpable – hope is rekindled and with it, a sense of purpose. The psychological impact of finding that it was all a fiction can only be imagined. It is a very, very cruel blow."

* The Home Office denied yesterday it has plans forcibly to return a handful of refugees to Afghanistan to show Afghan would-be asylum-seekers that Britain is not a soft touch. The claims arose in a leaked e-mail from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after a fact-finding trip to the country by a British official.