Asylum family held at Dungavel fail in court appeal

Precious Mhango has lived in the UK since she was four

An asylum seeker who lived in Glasgow with her 10-year-old daughter has failed in a legal challenge to block their deportation.

Florence Mhango and daughter Precious were taken off a flight to Malawi in November after their lawyer applied for a judicial review of their case.

But a judge at the High Court in London ruled the government's decision to deport them was "legitimate".

It is not yet known when the family will be returned to Malawi.

The court heard how Florence Mhango, 32, and Precious - also known as Tionge - entered the UK in May 2003 as dependants of Mrs Mhango's husband, who was in the country on a student visa.

They had leave to remain until 31 October 2007, the same visa expiry date as Mrs Mhango's husband.

Mrs Mhango separated from her husband in July 2006 and lived with her daughter in Streatham, south-west London.

Asylum applications

They moved to Glasgow in early 2007, where Precious started attending Dalmarnock primary school, later moving to St Maria Goretti primary school.

When Mrs Mhango's visa expired in October 2007 she had no leave to remain as her estranged husband's dependent and did not initially take steps to regularise her position.

She later launched unsuccessful asylum applications and the family were taken into Dungavel Detention Centre in Lanarkshire last year.

They were moved to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre, Bedfordshire, in November and won a late reprieve from deportation before moving back to Cranhill in Glasgow.

At the High Court in London on Thursday, judge Christopher Symons QC ruled the government's decision to remove them was "a legitimate, necessary and proportionate response" to the need to maintain immigration controls, and the family's application for judicial review failed.