An Afghan mother-of-two seeking asylum in the UK has failed to turn up to an appeal hearing after suffering a series of epileptic fits.

The hearing was due to resume on Wednesday, with the couple giving evidence via a video link from the German city of Nuremberg.

Fariba and Farid Ahmadi are challenging Home Secretary David Blunkett's decision to deport them after they were removed by police from a mosque in Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

But the couple were absent from the hearing in Hatton Cross, West London, because Mrs Ahmadi collapsed on Tuesday and had to be taken to a German hospital.

She was just really withdrawn, very, very pale, there were no expressions, no movement, it was really quite frightening

Elaine Heffernan Refugee worker

Mrs Ahmadi is said to have been suicidal since returning to Germany and has been treated by doctors after falling ill at an earlier hearing.

A refugee resettlement worker told Wednesday's hearing that Mrs Ahmadi felt terrible when she and her family were returned to Germany.

Elaine Heffernan said she had noticed a change in Mrs Ahmadi.

She said: "She was just really withdrawn, very, very pale, there were no expressions, no movement, and it was really quite frightening."

Ms Heffernan said she was present when the 25-year-old mother-of-two suffered "severe fits".

She said: "I actually thought she was dead, her eyes were fixed and I had to check for a pulse.

'Illegal deportation'

"She wasn't coping, she wasn't doing the things I had seen her do with her children beforehand."

The Ahmadi's fled Afghanistan in 2000 with daughter Hadia, now six, and son Seear, now four.

They say they were persecuted and tortured because Mr Ahmadi's father was a brigadier in the army under an earlier regime.

The family, who spent seven months in asylum camps in Germany before travelling to the UK, say they suffered racism in Germany.

Mr Blunkett ordered that they should be deported by private jet after police in riot gear seized the couple from a mosque.

In September, the High Court ruled the move was illegal, but it refused to allow them back to Britain to attend the immigration appeal hearing in person.

The hearing continues.