By Andy Tighe BBC News 24 home affairs correspondent

Three months after they were evicted from a mosque in the West Midlands, Farid Ahmadi and his wife Feriba sat nervously beside a translator as their appeal against deportation to Germany began.

But while the government-appointed adjudicator who will decide the case was sitting in a modern courtroom on the outskirts of London, the Afghan asylum-seekers were hundreds of miles away in Nuremberg, Germany.

Their images were transmitted by video-link, the result of a high court ruling earlier this year which accepted that the couple had been illegally removed from the UK.

But the same court denied them permission to return from Germany to fight the deportation order.

It was against this unusual background that Thursday's hearing took place.

Persecution

The Ahmadis still have a small but determined group of supporters who sat down beside the journalists and court officials, some carrying notebooks, others with bags of sandwiches and soft drinks in anticipation of a long day.

The Ahmadis, together with their six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son lived for more than a year in the village of Lye where the children went to the local school.

The raid on the mosque was widely condemned

The campaign to let them stay was a front-page story last summer.

They claimed they fled Afghanistan because they were being persecuted by the Taliban regime: Farid Ahmadi's father had been a senior officer in the pre-Taliban army.

At first they went to Germany but said they were victims of racist abuse and religious bigotry.

Several months later they turned up in Britain and claimed political asylum.

After they were rejected they sought sanctuary in a mosque, only to be forced out by police in riot gear and they were finally deported to Germany in August.

Their appeal is based on the psychological trauma that the couple - especially Feriba Ahmadi - claim to have suffered during their legal battle.

Break down

On Thursday, just after lunch, the 24-year-old collapsed and was led away to a waiting ambulance by her husband.

Throughout the hearing she had looked on the edge of tears, listening intently as lawyers she could only see on a television monitor argued their case.

Despite several hours of legal wrangling the Ahmadis were not called to give evidence.

There were numerous interruptions - some while lawyers held secret consultations, others when the video-link broke down, leaving a bewildered translator gesturing wildly at the camera.

It was not a satisfactory opening for such a high-profile deportation appeal.

It now looks likely that the case will be substantially delayed while expert opinion is sought.

But if the government gets its new immigration and asylum law passed, the practice of appealing deportation from outside the UK will become the norm.

Refugee groups are likely to argue that if the experience of Thursday's hearing is anything to go by, failed asylum-seekers will find it even harder to overturn Home Office rulings against them.