A man who faces deportation to Sri Lanka is being forced to endure another anxious wait as immigration officials decide his future.

Mohammed Samad, 22, must make another journey to the National Immigration Centre in Croydon on Thursday, August 10, but fears he will be detained as soon as he arrives.

The last time the Blackthorn Close, Hurstpierpoint, resident was ordered to report to the centre at the beginning of July, he was warned he could be locked up on arrival and deported immediately.

His wife Sarah admitted the couple, who will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary in August, were nervous but said they were making the most of the time they could guarantee together.

She said: "We've gone away for a few days just to be together while we know we can. We might not be able to do it for too much longer.

"It's pretty bad just looming over us all the time."

A petition has been set up and distributed among friends, family and businesses in Hurstpierpoint to try to persuade the Government to change its policy. So far 250 signatures have been collected.

Mr Samad arrived in Britain seven years ago with just the clothes he was wearing after being beaten up and interrogated in Sri Lanka.

He claimed he was bundled into a van by a group of men because his cousin, who he was living with, had become involved in an information leak that resulted in the deaths of two work colleagues.

He said: "They blindfolded me and took me to an industrial estate. They asked questions about my cousin and tried to beat me. I didn't want to go back home and have them doing the same thing to my sisters."

Mr Samad said he escaped and lived rough for three days before contacting his family and eventually flying to England.

He failed to secure asylum here but married Sarah and fathered Oscar, now 18 months old.

However, the Government has refused to change its mind about Mr Samad, despite pleas from friends and human rights organisations.

A spokesman for Justice, the human rights lobby group, said: "We feel an amnesty should be granted to immigrants who have been here for seven years. We also feel this family would be unduly split up."

The Home Office refused to comment on Mr Samad's case.

A spokesman said: "The Home Office assesses cases on their individual merits, providing protection to those who need it and seeking to remove those who do not."