LAST-ditch efforts to stop the deportation today of a Kosovan refugee, and husband of a Teignmouth woman, appear to have failed.

But, in a bizarre twist, Bedri Haziri, who has been married to Susan Haziri, owner of the Bow Windows café in Teign Street, for three years, has been told that because he is married to a UK resident he can return to Britain once he has obtained 'entry clearance' from consular authorities in Serbia or Albania.

On Tuesday last week, Bedri was arrested and held in a cell at Torquay police station, after the Home Office refused his application to stay in the country.

On Saturday night he was taken to Tinsley House, a holding centre near Heathrow, ready for his enforced return to Kosovo today.

Frantic attempts to intervene by a specialist lawyer and Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross were turned down by Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister.

During his time in Teignmouth, Bedri, described by his sister-in-law Janet Boyne as a 'kind gentle man', has won the love and affection of Susan's large family and friends in the town.

They point out that Bedri has not claimed or received a single penny from the government.

A petition against the deportation, signed by hundreds of local well-wishers, was handed into the Home Office, and the windows of the family café have been decorated with balloons and posters highlighting Bedri's plight.

The family acknowledges that Bedri entered the UK illegally, but that his efforts to stay – 'done through all the correct channels' – have been dealt with unfairly.

'I'm just gutted and disgusted by it all,' said Mrs Haziri. 'First, Bedri was held for a week at taxpayers' expense, then flown back to Kosovo at taxpayers' expense so that he can get entry clearance – a piece of paper – to come back again.

'They say we haven't been married long enough for Bedri to be qualified to be allowed to stay. We were also told that we could move to another EU country for six months and then be allowed to come back – but I thought we were already a EU country.'

Mrs Haziri said that the family business was suffering, and that she could not could not concentrate on anything.

She said that she found it difficult to understand why the recent government amnesty for many refugees had been for families only.

'We don't have any of our own children, but I've got three children and three grandchildren,' she said. 'We're hard workers and paying for those families to stay.'