A Kosovar couple trying to evade deportation have little chance of winning the right to remain in the UK, an MP has said.

Fred Gurraj and Donina Lunaj, who live in St Leonards, have been in hiding since their claims for asylum failed.

Now their MP, who tried to help their case, has said they have no choice but to leave.

Michael Foster, Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, wrote to the Home Office last year to ask if the couple could be exempted from immigration rules.

He was told they did not qualify for refugee status and there was no possibility of them being granted asylum.

Mr Foster said: "There is very little hope. I am not hostile to them.

"I wrote over a number of months. I expressed concern on the basis of human rights. I have made every possible case simply on the basis they're my constituents."

"There is no provision to allow them to remain. They're not even eligible to make an application.

"However nice they are, there is not a single issue that is uncertain about it."

Mr Gurraj arrived as an asylum seeker on April 14, 1999. On July 14, 1999, Ms Lunaj claimed asylum in her own right. They were married in September that year.

In September 2000, Ms Lunaj withdrew her application and became dependent on her husband's asylum claim.

Mr Foster was told by the immigration minister that, after careful consideration, the couple's claim was rejected. Their appeal was dismissed in 2002.

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

The couple, who have lived in St Leonards for seven years, have a nine-month-old baby.

Mr Foster said: "They knew when they had a child they had no basis in which to remain in the UK and could be removed at any time.

"In April 2005 they applied for indefinite leave to remain, nearly three years after being here illegally, as a result of the concession by the Home Secretary that those who had dependents under 16 could stay.

"Their application was refused because they didn't satisfy the eligibility criteria."

Mr Gurraj, 33, works in construction and Mrs Lunaj, 24, works in a care home.

The couple have told friend Brett Mclean, a Liberal Democrat activist, that they plan to apply for British citizenship because they have been resident for more than five years.

However, Mr Foster said this is only available to people who have been living in the UK legally.

He said: "The family will be moved together. There is no evidence that their human rights will be breached."