The Home Office says it will not consider any more arguments from an Afghan family who are due to be deported on Wednesday.

Farid and Feriba Ahmadi, and their two young children, were detained three weeks ago after police stormed a mosque in the West Midlands, where they were taking refuge.

Pierre Makhlouf, the family lawyer, had planned to submit a further report to immigration officers, but the Home Office says the case is "concluded".

Mr Makhlouf is now planning a last-minute legal challenge in the High Court to overturn the Home Office decision.

The Ahmadi children, with their identities hidden

The two children were locked up on Friday after visiting their parents at the Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow.

The children, aged four and six, have been made wards of court and cannot be named.

Mr Makhlouf said the report showed Mrs Ahmadi's mental health would deteriorate markedly if she is deported to Germany.

"The Home Office sent me a letter rejecting the representations I had sent them," said Mr Makhlouf.

"Those representations argued why the Home Office should wait for a medical report."

Child's questions

Sovaya Walton, who visited the family on Monday, said: "The youngest lad gets very upset and angry.

"When we were leaving he was asking me 'Why can't I be back with you, what have I done, why can't I walk out of here?'."

The family arrived in Germany after they fled Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2000.

They say they were tortured because Mr Ahmadi is the son of an army brigadier, prominent in the pre-Taliban regime.

They arrived in Germany and spent seven months in asylum camps, where they claim they faced racism and religious bigotry.

Mrs Ahmadi suffered two breakdowns and was admitted to hospital twice, say her supporters.