ASYLUM rights campaigners said yesterday they hoped a National Lottery grant would be used to pay for an anti-deportation worker on Teesside.

The £336,261 grant was awarded to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) last week, but has been frozen following an objection from Home Secretary David Blunkett and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.

The Tees Valley branch of the North-East Coalition for Asylum Rights (Necfar) said the pay-out was justified and could create a job in Middlesbrough.

Necfar secretary Pete Widlinski said part of the grant was intended for a worker who would advise and support asylum seekers in the North-East who are threatened with deportation.

He said: "The NCADC has supported 100 successful campaigns, which proves that many of the decisions the Immigration Service makes were wrong in the first place.

"If the correct decisions were made in the first place, there wouldn't be a need for NCADC."

He added: "This new worker would allow us to extend our work in line with the increasing numbers of asylum seekers coming to the region under the Government's dispersal scheme and we hope the post will be based in Middlesbrough."

The independent community fund, which distributes lottery money to charities, is looking into allegations that the NCADC has a wider political agenda, which would make it ineligible for lottery cash.