By Jon Silverman Home affairs analyst

The deportation of the Afghan Ahmadi family highlights the perils of enforcing a tough asylum policy - especially where the legal rights of children are concerned. But behind the emotion lie several inescapable conclusions.

First, that by returning the Ahmadis to Germany, the government is adhering to accepted convention within the EU that an asylum seeker must claim asylum from the first safe place of entry.

The Ahmadis fled Afghanistan in 2000

Second, that the intention to introduce fast-track deportation which would remove failed applicants within eight days, if enacted, is bound to lead to bitter court challenges.

And third, that despite the bullish pledges from ministers, the Home Office is still falling well short of the target set in April 2002 to remove 2,500 failed asylum seekers a month.

All of this explains why asylum is such a potent political mix - and often, a human tragedy.

Angry reaction

In the case of the Ahmadis, there were clearly particular sensitivities. Removing the parents, Farid and Feriba, from a mosque was a high-risk strategy - though justified in law.

Seizing the two children as they visited their parents at Harmondsworth detention centre was bound to provoke a furious reaction - but again ultimately endorsed by a High Court judge.

And returning the family to a country where they claim to have suffered from racism and religious bigotry appears heartless.

The family were forcibly removed from a mosque

But to refuse to do so would be tantamount to a declaration that Germany is not an acceptable refuge for asylum seekers - and no British home secretary would argue that.

The annual asylum figures, published by the Home Office at the start of this month, show that currently, the largest increase in applications is from Afghanistan - up from 5,555 to 9,000.

And both Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees have criticised Britain for "rushing to return" refugees to Afghanistan when security remained volatile and the US-led coalition continued bombing.

Tough strategy

But if the Ahmadis can prove that under the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees that they have a justifiable fear of persecution - Farid is the son of an army brigadier who was prominent in the pre-Taliban regime - Germany would be obliged to let them remain.

For Britain, though, the political and social consequences of a tough deportation strategy will continue to make waves.

Last year, the Metropolitan Police warned the Home Secretary that the use of specially trained deportation squads could trigger disturbances in parts of London.

That is almost certainly true of other parts of the country too.