Campaigners for an Afghan couple to be allowed to claim asylum in Britain are planning a protest in Manchester.
Supporters of Farid and Feriba Ahmadi said demonstrators would gather outside the constituency office of immigration minister Beverley Hughes in Manchester on Saturday.

Mr Ahmadi, 33, and his wife, 24, were arrested during a dawn raid at the Ghausia Jamia Mosque in Lye, Stourbridge, West Midlands, where they had taken refuge for the past month.

West Midlands Police said on Saturday they were concerned over any distress caused by their actions.




Even the Israeli army did not enter the Church of the Nativity when there was a siege

Salman Mirza, asylum worker

The controversial raid on a religious building has prompted calls for a public inquiry.

The Bishop of Barking, the Right Reverend Roger Sainsbury, joined Muslim leaders in condemning the action.

He said places of worship have traditionally been places of sanctuary in the UK and should not have been broken into.

But a spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said on Saturday talks had taken place on Friday night with community leaders, immigrations officials and a local MP.

"Issues of concern were discussed and an understanding was reached between those who attended the meeting regarding the incident itself.

"We did express our concern over any distress the incident may have caused to members of the mosque and the local community."

Change of heart

The Afghan couple and their two children took refuge at the mosque after the Home Office began deportation proceedings against them.


The parents are currently in a detention centre near Heathrow Airport after their solicitors won a judicial review of the decision to return them to Germany, where they had been detained before fleeing to the UK last year.

Their children Hadia, six, and, Seear, four, are in hiding with friends of the family.


The raid on the mosque was widely condemned


Feriba Ahmadi told The Times newspaper that when the police raided the mosque, "They woke me up and it was so frightening. My head was all mixed up. We did not know they were coming then".

She added that the police "had no right to enter a place of religion the way they did. It was very wrong."

She said she had not spoken to her children since Wednesday.

Salman Mirza, who works for a West Midlands-based asylum charity, said protest organisers hoped that immigration officials might have a change of heart.

Mr Mirza, 35, said the decision by West Midlands Police to send riot officers armed with batons and a battering ram to force entry to the mosque had highlighted the "brutal face" of government asylum policy.

"Even the Israeli army did not enter the Church of the Nativity when there was a siege and I think most people would agree that Israeli troops are not noted for their good human rights record," he said.

Racial abuse

The Ahmadi Family Support Group issued a joint statement with the Dudley Racial Equality Council, the Dudley Borough Interfaith Network and local councillors, which demanded a public inquiry into the raid.

The Ahmadi family have been living in Lye near Stourbridge for the past year after fleeing the Taleban.

They were smuggled illegally into the UK from Germany on the back of a lorry after leaving Afghanistan.

The family does not want to return to Germany because they claim they suffered racial abuse there.