Almost 100 Brazilians caught working illegally will be flown home in small groups after their government refused landing permission for a plane carrying them all.

Officials in the South American country's ministry for foreign relations caused the planned flight from Gatwick to be abandoned after informing the Home Office it would refuse to allow a plane carrying the 94 deportees to touch down.

They said it would be "humiliating" for them all to land together and demanded they were transferred to scheduled flights where their privacy would be better respected.

The first of the deportees were sent out at the weekend. Another four were due to leave today.

The total cost of the operation has been estimated at more than £100,000.

Sixty-eight of the 98 Brazilians were caught in a raid on a biscuit factory in Esher, Surrey, where 101 of 175 workers were found to be working illegally.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed the flight had been denied permission to land and added all the Brazilians would be sent back on scheduled flights within two weeks.

The spokesman added the precise nature of the problem was "a matter for the Brazilian government".

A spokesman for Brazil's ministry for foreign relations said: "The two nations are seeking to resolve this in the best possible way."

Conservative spokesman Humphrey Mallins said the Government had been caught out by the incident.

He said: "The Government can't get it right simply for lack of planning.

"The question now is what's going to happen to these people until they can be guaranteed to leave the country.

"Either they're going to be put up, which will cost tax payers another £500 per person, or else they're going to be set free, which means they may well disappear.

"I'm sure Brazil would be quick to deport an illegal Briton."