Campaigners fighting the deportation of a family who fled from Afghanistan are trying to contact Prime Minister Tony Blair for help.

Farid Ahmadi, his wife Fariba and their two young children, escaped from Kabul a year after being tortured by the Taleban.

They arrived in Britain after being detained in a camp in Germany, and have been living in Lye, near Stourbridge, Worcestershire.

The family have been told they are to be deported to Kabul and were due to leave on Monday but the children were too ill to travel.

'Democratic society'

Soraya Walton, a governor at the children's school, is now making an appeal to Mr Blair to step in and stop the deportation.

She told BBC Radio WM: "We take it for granted that we can wake up in the morning and go to work or school.

"This family have never had that opportunity. They came to England so that they could have freedom and a life and so the children could be brought up in freedom.

"People forget that in this country. They have no idea of the persecution these people have faced."

She added: "We are not Nazi Germany, we are a democratic, liberal society and that is something he (Tony Blair) has to remember."

The Ahmadi family are due to be deported to Germany next week where they will be detained in a camp before being sent back to Kabul.