THE SOLICITOR representing an asylum seeker at the centre of a love-tug citizenship battle has conceded his client is almost certain to be sent home in four weeks.

Michael Singleton said it was "very likely" Arsim Fejzullahu, of Hope Street, Blackburn, would lose his appeal.

Arsim, 23, wants stay in England because he fears persecution in his home country of Kosovo. He is married to Lois, 20, his British wife of 15 months, with whom he has a seven-week-old baby girl called Tara.

Lois vowed to move to Kosovo with Arsim to preserve their love if he was ordered to leave, but the couple would rather continue their life in Blackburn.

The appeal is likely to fail because the government have already judged his fears of persecution in Kosovo were not well-founded.

Arsim, a Kosovo-Albanian, claimed he would be murdered by the Serbian Police for his participation with the Kosovo Liberation Army before he fled the region three years ago.

The government is also not expected to grant refugee status on the basis that his human rights would be breached by him being separated from Lois. The Home Office said this was because she married him knowing he may have to leave Britain. Mr Singleton, of Roebucks solicitors, said Arsim would probably be made to leave the country and have to apply to move back as the spouse of a British citizen.

But Arsim, who works in the warehouse of Howarth Timber, Bruce Street, Blackburn, would then be left in a "Catch 22" situation, said Mr Singleton.

"The problem he has then got is that he needs to satisfy the Home Office he would be able to support himself without recourse to public funds," he said. "He won't be working then and his wife will be reliant on state benefits in this country, so he would fail on those grounds."

His only remaining hope was for Blackburn MP Jack Straw to put pressure on the Home Office.

"The only way forward would be for the Home Office to grant exceptional circumstances to remain on compassionate grounds outside of the immigration rules," he said, "and politically, that's not good at the moment."

The tribunal date has yet to be set, but will take place in Manchester in front of the Immigration Appeal Authority in the next four weeks.