ASYLUM seeker Matt Rahmati is today facing deportation back to Afghanistan after police and immigration officers carried out an early morning swoop.His distraught wife Tanya has told how the pair had to be torn apart because she would not let go of him when officials arrived at their Ipswich home at around 7am to take 21-year-old Matt to Ipswich police station ready to be transferred to a Harwich detention centre.

ASYLUM seeker Matt Rahmati is today facing deportation back to Afghanistan after police and immigration officers carried out an early morning swoop.

His distraught wife Tanya has told how the pair had to be torn apart because she would not let go of him when officials arrived at their Ipswich home at around 7am to take 21-year-old Matt to Ipswich police station ready to be transferred to a Harwich detention centre.

Matt's story caused a storm of protest in Suffolk after the Evening Star revealed his plight earlier this year.

Despite being in England for five years, holding down a job as a mechanic, being married to an English woman and speaking the language fluently he was told he must go back to Afghanistan because the country was now deemed safe.

His family and friends have now laid down the gauntlet to MP Chris Mole to help keep Matt back in the country he loves.

Matt's former boss at H&F Autos in St Helen's Street said: “I was only speaking to the secretary of Chris Mole yesterday to ask him what was going on.

“Chris Mole told me that if this did occur we should get in touch with him and he has got avenues he could explore.

“Now let's see what he can do.”

Devastated Tanya, 20, spoke of her heartbreak recalling how they were woken abruptly by a knock at the door early today.

She said: “I told Matt to go and answer the door. He got there and there were police and immigration people there.

“They said his case (to stay in this country) had been refused and they would be detaining him. I couldn't believe it was happening.

“They had to tear us apart because I wouldn't let go of him. Matt was calm. I think he had to be because I was in such a mess.

“I knew something would have to happen but I didn't think it would come to this. They didn't even let us prepare for it.

“He gave me a kiss goodbye and said he would see me later. They said if I wanted to see him I could and that he would have his phone when he got to Harwich.”

Tanya immediately called her mother, Karen Barroso, of Melbourne Road, Ipswich, and her friend Charlotte Keeble, 28, of Montgomery Road in the town.

They were later joined at Matt and Tanya's Victoria Street home by Matt's best friend, Aziz Alizadeh, 24, of Whitby Road, Ipswich, and Mr Di Franco.

Mrs Barroso said: “Tanya phoned me at 7am crying. I couldn't understand anything she was saying. I just heard screaming.

“We didn't think this would happen. I just never thought he would asked to leave.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: “We do not comment on individual cases but we do not deport people until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.”