Here are the key dates of their struggle to remain.

6 February 2002 - The plight of the Ahmadis first attracts national attention as campaigners appeal to Prime Minister Tony Blair to allow the family to remain in the UK.

11 February - The plea falls on deaf ears and the Home Office tells the family they have three days before they will be deported to Germany.

A legal appeal is lodged, meaning the family can temporarily remain at Lye near Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

27 March - Mrs Ahmadi tells BBC News Online: "If I could live in peace and freedom in Afghanistan, I would have stayed but I don't feel safe there."

The raid on the mosque was widely condemned

9 May - A high court judge rejects the Ahmadi's appeal, dismissing claims that conditions in the German camps were unsuitable

25 June - A group of 40 family supporters take to the streets of Lye as another three-day deadline for their deportation is imposed.

30 June - The family take refuge in Lye's Ghausia Jamia mosque.

10 July - Mr Ahmadi fails to attend a meeting with officials to discuss how the family might be returned to Germany.

25 July - In a dawn raid police batter down the front door of the mosque and seize Mr and Mrs Ahmadi. Their children had earlier been moved to a secret address by family friends after a tip-off.

The raid attracts widespread criticism. Conservative councillor for Lye and Wollescote, Abdul Qadus, says he is "disgusted". The Home says it was left with "no option".

But later the same day, supporters win an injunction to prevent immediate deportation.

27 July - After local Muslim leaders call for a public inquiry, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes says she will seek talks to prevent mosques being used as sanctuaries in future.

We have nothing left in Afghanistan. My house is gone and everything I had I gave away to come to Britain Feriba Ahmadi

31 July - Mrs Ahmadi, speaking from a detention centre near Heathrow, tells the BBC World Service that, despite a new regime in Afghanistan, it is still not safe for her family.

She goes on: "I want something for my children, for their future, so when they are grown up, when their schooling is finished they can get a job, go to university."

1 August - A planned deportation attempt is suspended after the Ahmadi's children are made wards of court, meaning they cannot be removed from the UK without the permission of the court.

The family are reunited for the first time since the mosque raid when the children visit the Heathrow detention centre.

The family are in the Harmondsworth detention centre

9 August - Another visit ends with the children being forced to remain at the centre, although a judge later rules they can return to the family friends who have been looking after them.

10 August - The appeal is overturned; the children must stay at the centre.

11 August - As part of the battle against deportation, it is announced that the Ahmadis will see a psychiatrist in an attempt to prove they need special care and support only obtainable in the UK.

12 August - With two days to go before the family are due to be forced to leave, supporters say they will "throw themselves under the wheels of the plane" to prevent it.

13 August - The Home Office says it will not consider any more arguments from the Ahmadis.

Family lawyer Pierre Makhlouf protests that he had planned to submit a further report to immigration officers he says would show Mrs Ahmadi's mental health would deteriorate markedly if she is deported to Germany.

A last-ditch legal challenge to the High Court is planned.

14 August - A judge rules in favour of the Home Office and the Ahmadis are told they are to be deported.

Two blacked-out Ford Transit vans, believed to be carrying the Ahmadi family, leave Harmondsworth Detention Centre at 0730 BST followed by an estate car and a police escort.

Protesters tried to block the convoy's path as it left the detention centre.

The Ahmadis were taken to an undisclosed airport and flown to Munich.

23 August - Lawyers for the family win the first stage of a legal battle to have the deportation overturned. The High Court allows them to mount a full judicial review of the Home Office's decision.

11 September - The High Court rules that the Home Secretary acted unlawfully by deporting the family. Mr Justice Scott Baker said that the family should have been allowed to put a case that their mental health would suffer if they were deported. Their human rights had been breached because of the government's failure to take this into account before the deportation.

11 December - Fariba fails to turn up at an appeal hearing after suffering a series of epileptic fits. The couple are due to give evidence over a video link from Germany.

24 December - The family lose their appeal against deportation.