The Home Office has defended a ruling to deport an Afghan family.

The asylum adjudicator rejected the appeal by Farid and Fariba Ahmadi and their two young children and ruled on Tuesday that they must return to Afghanistan.

The family, who at one stage had taken refuge in a mosque had previously won a High Court ruling that home secretary David Blunkett had been wrong to send them back to Germany where they had arrive after fleeing Kabul in 2000.

Home Office minister, Beverley Hughes said the government had acted "entirely properly" in returning the family to Germany.

The judge ruled that the family should have been given the right to appeal to the Immigration Appellate Authority before their deportation but that appeal has now been rejected.

"This is a fundamental example of the sort of case which seriously undermines our ability to enforce our immigration laws as decided by parliament," said Hughes.

She rejected the family's claim and warned the government would not be making any special exceptions.

"We are committed to maintaining the credibility and effectiveness of immigration control and of immigration law," the minister said.

Hughes defended the department's tough stance and accused the family of abusing the asylum system.

"We cannot tolerate such clear abuses of the asylum system by entertaining claims that are without substance or merit and which are designed solely to frustrate the proper management of immigration control. It cannot be right to allow people to use political asylum to shop around for the best deal in benefits or the most attractive place to settle or find a job," she said.