A DESPERATE mother has said she would rather kill herself than be forced to move back to Serbia after her appeal for asylum was rejected.

A campaign has been launched in East Cleveland to press the Home Office to reconsider the case of Ilire Xhama and her two young children.

Widow Ilire, 33, is suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following a life of persecution as a Roma living in Southern Serbia, near Kosovo.

She came to Britain illegally in 2002 after she and her four-year-old daughter witnessed the brutal murder of her husband.

Ilire and her daughter, now seven, and a son to whom she gave birth in this country applied for asylum but were refused.

An appeal against the decision failed three months ago.

Ilire said the Home Office felt her application was not strong enough on the grounds that the situation in Serbia has changed.

She said: "I will never go back alive. I will kill myself before I go back there.

"How can this Government have the heart to send us back there?"

Romas like Ilire, who is an Albanian-speaking Muslim, were classed as gypsies and were attacked by racists.

She suffered degrading treatment at the hands of both Serbs and Kosovans, particularly during periods of conflict in the Nineties.

Worried friends and neighbours want her to be allowed stay here and her supporters have launched a petition and letter-writing campaign.

To sign the petition, or for further information on the campaign for Ilire Xhama, contact Kath Sainsbury of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns at 109 Parliament Road, Middlesbrough TS1 4JE, telephone (01642) 226260.