HUNDREDS of people turned out to support an academic couple who are facing deportation because of time spent out of the country doing research.

Dr Ernesto Schwartz-Marin, 36, and his wife Dr Arely Cruz-Santiago, 32, who are both academics at Durham University, have been told they must leave the country because they spent too long carrying out research in their home country of Mexico.

The Home Office says they must leave by next week after refusing their application for indefinite leave to remain.

The University and College Union (UCU) organised a demonstration in support of the couple and their 11-year-old daughter.

More than 300 people, bearing placards and flags, turned out.

Dr Schwartz-Marin said: “The support is fantastic. My academic community has been outstanding.

“I’m feeling upbeat because of all the support but I don’t know how it will be resolved. It’s a big system that’s discretionary.

“I will be fighting until the end.”

More than 20,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Home Office to reconsider its decision while around 450 people have donated more than £13,000 to help launch a judicial review.

On Wednesday, they launched an appeal using human rights legislation in a bid to give them the opportunity to remain in the UK to carry out a judicial review.

The couple, who have been living in the UK for more than ten years, applied last year for indefinite leave to remain.

However, because they spent 270 days doing fieldwork in 2014 and 2015, the Home Office says they have exceeded the 180 days they were allowed to be out of the country.

The Economic and Social Research Council funded work involved creating a DNA database to help identify the remains of the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed or disappeared in Mexico’s drug wars.

The Home Office has rejected their claim that the work qualifies as assisting in a humanitarian crisis, which would exempt them.

Dr Marek Szablewski, vice president of the Durham UCU branch, said: “We decided to gather in solidarity with Ernesto and his family and other researchers who are under similar threats for doing their jobs.

“We think it’s inhumane.”