FOUR members of a Turkish family seeking asylum in Weston are being deported back to their home country.

FOUR members of a Turkish family seeking asylum in Weston are being deported back to their home country.

Two children under 10 years old and their mother and father were removed from an address in the resort early on Tuesday morning in a joint operation by police and Border and Immigration Agency officials.

An agency spokesman said: "They were taken to a detention centre near a London airport and will be deported in the coming days.

"It is particularly challenging in cases where we are dealing with families with young children who don't qualify for humanitarian protection and who are here illegally.

"We only remove people whose asylum claims have been dismissed by an independent judge.

"We give families in these circumstances every opportunity to leave the UK, provide them with tickets and often arrange for help with their re-settlement.

"But when such a family won't take the offers to help them leave, the only option left to us is to enforce the court's decision and remove them from the country."

Officers acting on intelligence also raided accommodation above the Bengal Raj Indian restaurant in the Boulevard.

They checked people's documents, which were found to be in order.

Four Bangladeshi illegal workers were found at Tandoori Masala restaurant in Worle High Street in December last year.

A month earlier, three men of the same nationality were arrested after they were found to be working illegally at the Curry Cottage in Bleadon.

Earlier this month, UK immigration minister Liam Byrne announced extra border protection measures including on-the-spot fines of up to £10,000 per illegal employee for employers, compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals and a new border force with police powers for frontline staff.