A Kosovar couple with a 13-week-old baby are fighting deportation from the UK.

Fred Gurraj and his wife Donina Lunaj, who have been living in St Leonards for six years, have been ordered to return to the region they fled in 1999.

Fred, from Klina in the centre of Kosovo, is a former cameraman who decided to leave after he was imprisoned by Serbs and his flat was attacked.

Like many of his friends, he moved abroad to escape the violence and has never been back.

His fiancee Donina followed him to the UK and the pair were married in London, then moved to St Leonards to live with friends.

Fred is working as a builder and Donina was a care assistant for elderly people until the birth of their son Kevin Lunaj at the Conquest Hospital, St Leonards.

Friends argue that the couple, who have worked from their first week in the UK, are valuable citizens who pay taxes and insurance.

They have also built relationships with people in St Leonard's and now have few friends in their home country.

But the Home Office has told the family they do not qualify for refugee status because the Kosovan conflict has ended.

Fred, 33, said: "We don't want to go back because the situation is not safe. We have lived here for six-and-a-half years.

"We are settled here. If we go back, I have to start from the beginning again.

"Why did they allow us to stay if they want to send us back now?"

The couple's application for asylum was refused in 2000 and their appeal was rejected in 2002.

The Government declared an amnesty in 2000, allowing migrants with children to remain. This ended in October 2003.

In many parts of Kosovo, there is no hot water and there are regular power cuts.

Donina said: "Where can we go with a baby? Nobody would like to live in that place."

Friend Brett McLean, of Seaside Road, said: "They were in the country for two days and they were straight into full employment.

"If this family are deported, they will have no food or shelter. They will have no employment, no hot water - the things we take for granted. All they would have is the clothes on their backs."

Michael Foster, Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, sympathised with the couple's plight but said there was little chance the Home Office decision would change.

He advised the family to travel to Kosovo and, if they wished, apply to return to the UK. The couple were informed five years ago that their application to stay had been unsuccessful.

Mr Foster said: "There is no reason to believe the human rights of the family will be breached. There is no medical evidence that the baby isn't able to accompany them."

He said the couple knew the precarious nature of the situation into which they decided to bring a child.

"I am not unsympathetic to them. This decision isn't going to be changed. I understand clearly to live in this country is immeasurably better than to live in Kosovo where they were before.

"Kosovo now is a country that is relatively stable. They are failed asylum seekers. If we have any form of immigration policy it is necessary to enforce that policy.

"We welcome immigration on the basis of people coming here if they have the necessary skills.

"We can't allow people to enter the country illegally.

"We listen to asylum claims. If those claims are rejected or their country becomes safe to return, it would be unfair to treat them as a priority to the many thousands of people who would like to live here who have skills or family here.

"The UK is a very nice place to live. There has to be a system of making an application. If the minister allowed them to stay, it would encourage people to come to the country without good cause.

"The real issue is we must deal much faster with these applications.

"They have been staying here illegally and they have had a baby in that precarious situation."