AN IRANIAN family living in Southampton claim they face being made homeless and possible deportation after the Home Office cut off their weekly allowance.

Husband and wife Khalil, 62, and Lisa Khameneh, 49, - who are both blind - and their teenage daughter Ariana say they will face certain death if they return to their homeland.

Immigration officials have said the family is no longer entitled to the weekly £97 allowance because Ariana, a student at Southampton's Taunton's College, has just turned 18.

The family has received the payment since their first claim for asylum failed in August 2004. They have been appealing to stay ever since.

Now they have been told to vacate their home in Briarswood, Shirley, by January 25 and leave the country without delay.

They say they should be allowed to stay because of Lisa's deteriorating health and the fact that they will face persecution or death in Iran because they are Christian converts.

Lisa said: "The flat we are living in belongs to the Home Office and we have been told to leave.

"There is no way we can go back. Life in Iran is no better for us and we will be persecuted. We do not want to suffer."

"My medical problems mean that I can hardly walk from one room to the next and my heart has got worse. "I am just glad God is keeping me alive by the medication I am taking."

The family fled to Britain on six-month visas three years ago to get treatment for Lisa's chronic lung problems.

Rev Ian Johnson, team rector of the city centre parish, who has supported the Khameneh family said: "I want the government to find some compassion and to allow the family to stay.

"To send a blind Christian couple back to Iran is outrageous with the present political context.

"But it's even worse to put them on the streets and say to them fend for themselves."

He added: "I've got to find a way of keeping a roof over this family's heads or they will end up on the streets."

A Home Office spokesman said it did not comment on individual cases.