A family of Afghan asylum seekers is to undergo medical tests in an attempt to fight deportation.

Supporters of Feriba and Farid Ahmadi and their two children announced on Sunday plans for the family to see a psychiatrist on Tuesday.

Supporters argue that the family, who lived in the West Midlands, may need special care and support which they can only get in the UK.

On Saturday, Mr and Mrs Ahmadi's two children were ordered to be held in Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow, west London, until they leave the UK.

Harmondsworth Detention Centre, west London

Mr and Mrs Ahmadi have been detained since they were arrested on 25 July in a police raid on a mosque in Lye, near Stourbridge.

They had taken refuge there for four weeks.

The couple's six-year-old daughter and son, four, had been living with a family friend since before the couple took refuge in the mosque.

But a judge ruled on Saturday that they must be detained.

Stress specialist

The Ahmadis' supporters said the children should not be held in "a glorified prison" where they were left "traumatised".

Pierre Makhlouf, the family's immigration lawyer, said the Ahmadis would see Dr Stuart Turner, a specialist from London's Traumatic Stress Clinic, on Tuesday.

The couple took refuge in the mosque for a month

The Ahmadis are currently scheduled to be deported on Wednesday to Germany, where they first claimed asylum.

The family arrived in Britain claiming they had been racially harassed in Germany and did not want to return.

Mr Makhlouf, from Hackney Law Centre, said: "I'm arguing that the parents need psychiatric follow-up care and that should be enabled with a support network of relatives and friends for it to be effective.

"The aim is to show the extent of the harm that will be caused by their removal from the UK."

Children 'unhappy'

On Saturday, Mrs Ahmadi told the BBC her children were very upset at being held in the detention centre.

"They are unhappy. They are always crying.

"They ask me `why we are here, what is this prison?' They are so scared. They are so afraid," she said.

But Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said that "in almost all circumstances the best interests of children are served in being with their parents".