A family of Afghan refugees were flown out of Britain in a private jet today, leaving a furious row over the £50, 000 cost of the deportation in their wake.

Farid Ahmadi, his wife Feriba and their 2 children, Hadia, 6, and Seear, 4, were flown out of Britain in a cloak and dagger Home Office operation shortly after 10am.

The family, who had settled in Lye, were whisked out of te country from a secret location, ending a year-long wrangle with the authorities.

Furious protestors had been told they would leave from Birmingham Airport for Germany, after losing an 11th Hour High Court bid to stay in the country.

2 blacked out Ford Transit vans, followed by an estate car and a police escort, were seen leaving the detention centre in Harmondsworth, neat Heathrow, at 7.30 am.

Protestors blocked the convoy'spath and campaigners waving placards were bundled out of the road by police.

Mrs. Ahmadi was glimpsed sobbing uncontrollably as the convoy of cars roared away from the following camera crews on the M40. They are thought to have doubled back to either Heathrow or the Northolt Airbase.

Birmingham Perry Barr MP, Khalid Mahmood, said: "This is silly and absurd. This amount of money could have paid for them to stay here for 4 or 5 years."

Leading campaigner Soraya Walton said in tears: "The Home Office has acted in a deplorable way. I fear what those children will be going through now after they had a settled life in this country. It is appalling.

"On every step of the way the Home Office has used the judicial system as its own personal agency. It isn't justice."

Elaine Hefferman of the Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers siad: "it is a final insult to the family and the thousands of British people angry at what has happened to deport them in secret. The Government has wasted taxpayers' money on chartering a flightand even more on the High Court battles and they moan that they can't afford to build hospitals, schools and provide new railway lines."

The Home Office met all inquiries about the deportation of the Ahmadi family with a wall of silence. Officials said they "could not comment on individual cases because details were private to the people involved."

Asked whether the HO had been embarrassed by the whole affair, the spokeswoman replied curtly: "No, we are not embarrassed. We simply can't comment."

Mr. Ahmadi, a 33 year old mechanic and his 24 year old wife, who wants to train as a nurse, fled Taliban contolled Afghanistan in 2000.