Immigration minister Beverley Hughes says she will seek talks with Muslim leaders to prevent mosques being used as sanctuaries.

She was speaking after an Afghan couple seeking asylum in the UK was arrested during a dawn raid on a mosque in Stourbridge, West Midlands, on Friday.

The raid led to protest from religious leaders and prompted calls for a public inquiry.

About 50 supporters of Farid and Fariba Ahmadi are holding a demonstration outside Ms Hughes' constituency surgery in Stretford and Urmston in Manchester.

Beverley Hughes: "Difficult situation"

However, Ms Hughes defended the decision to arrest Farid and Fariba Ahmadi at the Ghausia Jamia Mosque where they had taken refuge for the past month.

She said: "I understand their sensitivities completely but equally I understand that if people do decide to prevent a lawfully-taken decision from being taken then the police and the government have to take a decision about how to deal with that difficult situation."

She said she would seek talks with the leader of the British Muslim Council to stop people using mosques as refuges.

Talks held

The raid has been condemned by Muslim leaders as well as the Bishop of Barking, the Right Reverend Roger Sainsbury.

But a spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said on Saturday talks had taken place on Friday night with community leaders, immigrations officials and a local MP.

"Issues of concern were discussed and an understanding was reached between those who attended the meeting regarding the incident itself.

"We did express our concern over any distress the incident may have caused to members of the mosque and the local community."

The raid on the mosque was widely condemned

The Afghan couple and their two children took refuge at the mosque after the Home Office began deportation proceedings against them.

The parents are currently in a detention centre near Heathrow Airport after their solicitors won a judicial review of the decision to return them to Germany, where they had been detained before fleeing to the UK last year.

Their children Hadia, six, and, Seear, four, are in hiding with friends of the family.

Feriba Ahmadi told The Times newspaper that when the police raided the mosque, "They woke me up and it was so frightening. My head was all mixed up. We did not know they were coming then".

She said she had not spoken to her children since Wednesday.

Supporters protested in Ms Hughes' constituency

They are being looked after by family friend Soraya Walton, who told the BBC: "I'm not using them as a bargaining chip, I'm giving them the freedom they deserve.

"They deserve respect and they haven't had any respect from the government with regards to their well-being.

"As far as I'm concerned the children are better off playing around than put into a detention centre."

The Ahmadi family were living in Lye near Stourbridge for the past year after fleeing the Taleban.

They were smuggled illegally into the UK from Germany on the back of a lorry after leaving Afghanistan.

The family does not want to return to Germany because they claim they suffered racial abuse there.