AN MP has launched a scathing attack on the Government's controversial policy of deporting asylum seeking children and their parents.

Chris Mullin described the forced removal of youngsters whose family's applications for residence in the UK have been denied, as an "unpardonable act of cruelty."

Mr Mullin, the MP for Sunderland, spoke about the issue - which affects the Sukula family from Bolton - during a heated parliamentary debate.

Campaigners are hoping the debate will have highlighted the plight of families like the Sukulas, who are threatened with deportation after their asylum claim was rejected.

He said: "I am talking about families with young children who have lived in the UK for years and who, in some cases, have been born here and know no other life.

"I am talking about removals to a handful of the world's most dysfunctional countries, where living standards are not merely lower, but catastrophically so, and where hunger and destitution awaits those children."

Young children and their families can currently be deported from the UK under tough measures to clamp down on failed asylum seekers.

Bolton's Sukula family came to the town three years ago. But they now survive off the charitable donations from organisations and people who support their cause after their benefits were stopped.

But because their application for asylum has failed, the adults, along with their six children could be forced back to their homeland - the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape, torture, crime and despotism is rife.

It was the plight of families like the Sukulas that was the focus of last week's parliamentary debate, which was held at Westminster Hall.

Mr Mullin, who opened the discussion, said: "I have said that to demonstrate that I am not a soft touch on a asylum policy. However, I believe in combining a robust approach to asylum with a basic human decency, especially where young children are involved.

"I put it to the minister that where children are concerned, there is a case for tempering with our new-found rigour towards asylum removals with a little basic humanity."

The Government was represented by Leigh MP Andy Burnham, the under-secretary of state for the Home Office.

Mr Burnham was also addressed by Bolton MP, Dr Brian Iddon, who has publicly supported the Sukulas' bid for asylum in the UK.

Dr Iddon gave colleagues who attended the debate the background to the Sukulas' arrival in Britain, explaining that two of the six children were born in the UK and the others were very young when they fled the Congo.

He added: "I am sure my honourable friend agrees it is unfair to return such families."

Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington, has spoken about the issue at length during previous Commons debates.

He said: "It is heartless, cruel and unfair to remove from this country, children who have known nothing other than being born and brought up here."

He stressed that the war in Congo has had little international attention despite almost three million people dying there in the last 10 years.

"Taking a child out of a school in Britain and dropping them in Congo with no follow-up whatever cannot be right, fair or just."

Mr Burnham told the MPs: "I assure honourable members that their comments will be heard in the Home Office."

He added that no system is beyond improvement and the Immigration Minister wants to create one which everyone can have confidence in.

But he added: "At the end of the day, if the system is based on a series of rules, at some point the rules must be enforced."