Two Afghan children have spent a second night in a detention centre for asylum seekers, after the government won a High Court ruling yesterday to keep them in custody.

The children were detained when they visited their parents in the holding centre on Friday, and the family is now due to be deported to Germany.

But is the government's tough line warranted?

Keith Best from the Immigration Advisory Service told Breakfast: "Of course those who have no lawful right to remain here should laeve but we are concerned about the heavy handedness in this case.

"I am not sure how you can justify putting four and six year olds into prison."

Speaking live from the government's immigration holding centre near Heathrow, he said: "At present, there are 72 families in the centre behind me..

"The removal centre is comfortable but it's still a prison: look at the barbed wire - what message does that convey to children?"

click here to watch our interview in full with Keith Best

Details

A court has ruled on Saturday that the four-year-old boy and six-year-old girl must stay with their parents at Harmondsworth Detention Centre, which they had visited on Friday.

The Ahmadi children, with their identities hidden

Farid and Feriba Ahmadi's lawyers said the move was illegal and the children must remain with family friends - a view upheld by the High Court in a ruling late on Friday.

But it is understood that officials persuaded the court that the Home Secretary has the final say in some immigration cases and the children should remain in custody.

The Ahmadis were detained two weeks ago after being forcibly removed from a mosque where they had taken refuge.

The manner of the arrest attracted widespread condemnation of police tactics.

11th hour appeal

Mrs Ahmadi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that her children were scared and did not understand what was happening to them.

The family's immigration lawyer, Pierre Makhlouf, said there had been no warning of what would happen when the children were taken to see their parents by a family friend on Friday.

Although very regrettable, sometimes it is necessary to detain families with children

Home Office

He said a High Court judge ordered the release of the children, after an 11th hour appeal on Friday night.

After Saturday morning's court hearing, Mr Makhlouf said: "I'm extremely disappointed that politics is taking precedent over a legal decision that was taking into account the best interests of children".

He also said he was angry that the Home Office had "acted as they have in a clandestine manner, detaining the children without them even having their teddy bears with them".

He added: "The Secretary of State's drive to enforce his immigration controls has disregarded all the arguments being put forward by the lawyers trying to work in the best interests of the children."

Harmondsworth Detention Centre, west London

The sequence of events prompted former Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe to demand an explanation.

She said: "I know of no precedent for a government minister defying a court ruling."

Mr Makhlouf said papers had been lodged to make the children wards of court and that they should not have been removed from their carer until a decision on their parents asylum application was made.

Mr Makhlouf said he was calling for a psychiatric assessment of the parents, adding that he was convinced they suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

'Regrettable'

A Home Office spokeswoman said the Ahmadi children had been "reunited" with their parents.

She said: "Detention remains an unfortunate but essential element in the effective enforcement of immigration control.

"Although very regrettable, sometimes it is necessary to detain families with children."

Ms Widdecombe said the situation was a "mess" and called on the government to explain its actions.

"Where you have got the intervention of the courts, then that is something which, however irritating, has to be supreme," she said.

Uproar at raid

The Ahmadis say they fled the Taleban regime two years ago with their children to seek refuge in Britain.

Their case caused uproar among Muslim elders after the police and immigration officers smashed their way into a mosque two weeks ago.

Their children were not at the mosque when officers stormed in and seized the couple.

They say there is nothing left for them in Afghanistan and that they had started to build a future for themselves in England.

The Home Office says the couple should be returned to Germany, where they first sought refuge from the Taleban.

It has suspended their deportation until after a judicial review into the case.