A BRIGHTON father faces an agonising two-week wait to find out if he will be deported by the government and split from his young family.

Mohammed Al-Ajam, 39, comes from Yemen but now lives in Portslade with wife Hayley, 29, and two children Oliver, five, and Layla, aged just ten months.

The couple have twice tried to settle in Yemen, which is currently in the middle of a bitter war and experiencing one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, since marrying under Islamic law in 2009 but now they are too scared to go back and want to settle in Sussex.

The Home Office refused his application for a permanent visa last month but after intervention from local MP Peter Kyle, government officials have told the family they will review the case and a decision should be made in the next fortnight.

Mohammed, who works in property management, said: "I have a British wife and two British children and I love them all dearly. My wife was born and bred in Brighton and she agreed to come with Yemen to me, and we twice tried to settle there, until the war started.

"I managed to join my family in the UK legally and my immigration history is excellent. Yemen has been a war zone for more than a year now and the British Embassy is not co-operating , which I believe is really unfair.

"I have been told I am not allowed to work and they are holding my passport. I feel hopeless and frustrated."

Wife Hayley said without Mr Kyle's support their case would be doomed.

It has now transpired that the case was considered wrongly, which is why the family has fresh hope.

She said: "This is very distressing for us all. We have already been apart for far too long in the past when Mo has been in Yemen and I have been in Brighton. Being apart from him has been devastating, and he has missed the birth of both our children.

"I did try to settle over there but it was terrifying. I was afraid to go out and I was so unhappy I just wanted to come back.

"We believe that Mo should be allowed to stay. Why? Because there is a war going on in Yemen and it would be unsafe for him to go back. And we would then be split as a family. We have already been separated in the past for far too long.”

The Home Office has written to the family apologising for its original error. The application was considered under what is known as ‘the partner route’ when it should have been looked at under ‘the parent route'.

A government official has now said the family will know the outcome within two weeks.

You can sign their petition at: https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-david-cameron-mp-david-cameron-for-our-kids-please-allow-our-family-to-remain-together-in-the-uk