A KOSOVAN family, who claimed they would be killed if they returned home, will be deported today - despite a determined campaign to keep them in Britain.

The Ibrahimi family came to Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in 1999 after fleeing Kosovo along with thousands of others when their home was burned down.

Mohammet Ibrahimi, 37, had been threatened by the Kosovan Liberation Army after refusing to stop working for his Serb employers to fight in the civil war.

He now believes his family - wife Sebahate, 24, and their children, Albina, two, and eight-month-old Altina - are in serious danger after an appeal against deportation was rejected by the Home Office.

Senior Liberal Democrat Phil Willis, the Harrogate MP, joined forces with the local community to campaign for the Ibrahimis to stay in the Starbeck area of town.

But, after reporting to immigration chiefs in Leeds, the family was placed in holding accommodation close to Gatwick and will board a flight to Kosovo today.

Mr Willis said: "I believed all along, because they are honourable people, that they would leave the country when they were asked to.

"I am confident, after speaking to officials, that the correct procedure has been followed. I just feel desperately inadequate that I was unable to persuade the Home Office to allow them to stay."

The family's next-door neighbour, Councillor Philip Broadbank, said: "When I said I'd see them later, they looked at me as though they knew they wouldn't.

"I wasn't there, but I'm told that when they got to the immigration service they were told that it was inevitable that they would be going back at some time, even if they did stay here temporarily. They apparently decided to get it over with and go now."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said the Ibrahimis had voluntary placed themselves in the hands of the immigration service.