Apology over deportation blunder

Vera Kachepa said they have been treated very badly

The Home Office has apologised after a family were unable to be deported to Malawi because there were no tickets or passports provided for them.

The blunder at Heathrow meant Vera Kachepa, 44, and her four children could not board their flight.

Locals in Weymouth, Dorset, where the family have lived for four years, along with the local MP have been campaigning for the Kachepas to be allowed to stay.

They have now been told that they will be deported in August.

The family said they feared persecution if they returned to Malawi.

Despite tickets being booked and travel documents being available, we're currently investigating why this family didn't leave as planned Home Office

The family were unable to board their Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, to meet a connection to Malawi, on Tuesday night after their documents were not produced by immigration officials.

Ralf Johnson, a family friend, said the family - already extremely upset - were now "distraught" at their treatment.

He said: "The family arrived in plenty of time and their treatment smacks of maladministration and incompetence.

"How can the people who make an error like this be capable of making decisions about this family's future."

He said that on the advice of Dorset South MP Jim Knight they had all set off to return to Weymouth and await further information from the Home Office.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Weymouth

The family argue that their treatment by the Home Office has been inhumane and that this was another reason why they should be allowed to stay.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Despite tickets being booked and travel documents being available, we're currently investigating why this family didn't leave as planned."

Mrs Kachepa and her children Natasha, 20, Alex, 17, Anthony, 16, and Upile, 11, came to the UK to join her husband, who was working as a pharmacist in Weymouth.

But he left in July 2001, saying he was homesick and wanted to visit Malawi.

He never returned to the UK and set up home with the niece of a former president.

The Kachepas, who remained in Britain to build a new life, said they were now concerned for their safety if they returned.

They lost an appeal last year and were arrested in March but released so the children could finish the school year.