New asylum hope for teenage twins

Kamila and Karina Kaya now hope they can move to Israel

The deportation of twin sisters who sought refuge in the UK after their parents were murdered has been postponed by the Home Office.

Kamila and Karina Kaya, 18, came to Birmingham three years ago from the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan.

The GCSE students, who have said they witnessed the murder of their policeman father, had been due to be returned to their homeland on Wednesday.

The delay means the sisters should have enough time to legally move to Israel.

The pair have been offered a permanent safe haven there.

They worried they might end up in the sex trade Lorraine Edwards, social worker

After arriving in Birmingham the pair were"adopted" by the Jewish community in the city.

Lorraine Edwards, a social worker from the Birmingham Jewish Community Care charity, said: "The girls are absolutely delighted. There were a lot of tears when we told them the news.

"They weren't eating properly and had lost a lot of weight, and they couldn't sleep for worry.

"They feared they would go back to their home country where there is a lot of crime. They worried they might end up in the sex trade."

Detention centre

She said the charity would now "work quickly" to get their papers processed ready for their move to Israel.

The sisters were living in Stirchley, Birmingham, when they were detained on 22 December while visiting an immigration office in Solihull.

They are now in a detention centre in Bedfordshire after their applications for asylum were formally rejected.

A spokesman for the Home Office said the department chose not to comment on individual cases.