An Armenian mother and her three children have won a court injunction to stop them being deported while their case is looked at again.

But Anna Vardanyan, 33, and her children Mariam, 16, Norik, 12, and Gayana, eight, are being forced to stay at the Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire instead of returning to St George where they have lived for seven years.

Mariam has contracted salmonella food poisoning since being taken to the centre on Friday and is seriously ill in hospital.

Now friends of Mariam and Norik, who both go to the City Academy in Russell Town Avenue, Lawrence Hill, have launched a petition and have written to Government ministers in an effort to persuade the Home Office to let the family return to their home at least until their appeal is heard.

The Vardanyans were taken away by 10 police officers and immigration officials at 6am and were due to be deported on Friday evening but at 5.55pm their solicitor rang supporters, who had demonstrated outside Trinity Road police station, to say that an injunction had been granted.

Patrick McInally, 14, of Carlisle Road, Greenbank, who organised the petition said: "The point is these are children and they have abducted by the state.

"They do not deserve to be treated like that. They haven't been arrested and they haven't done anything wrong."

More than 300 of the school's pupils have signed the petition so far which they intend to take to Number 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister. The children have also written to Children's Commission Sir Albert Aynsley-Green calling for the Vardanyans to be freed.

In December Asiya Hassan, also 14, of Stapleton Road, Easton, joined Norik in addressing politicians and councillors at a conference at the school on the plight of children in detention centres.

Asiya said: "It's wrong to put children in there who are completely innocent. The law says you are innocent until proven guilty.

"Norik was one of the main speakers at our conference. He had been in a detention centre before so knows what horrible places they are."

Mariama Jalloh, 16, of Kingswood, is Mariam's best friend. She said: "I have known Mariam for three years now. We are really close. She should not be in a detention centre."

Mariama herself faced deportation to war-torn Liberia two years ago. She and her sister Binta, ten, went on hunger strike, so desperate were they not to return to the country where their father was murdered and their mother tortured.

The UK Border Agency says the Vardanyans were living in the country illegally after their claim for asylum was turned down and appeals failed.

Paulette North, a teacher at the City Academy and a member of Bristol Defend The Asylum Seekers Campaign, said: "Mariam is now very ill after contracting salmonella food poisoning. We are so frightened for the health and safety of this family.

"Detention centres are no places for children. The family have strong ties to Bristol.

"They should be allowed to return while the judicial review into their case is heard and that could take months."

A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said last week that the decision not to grant asylum was scrutinised by an independent immigration judge who upheld that decision.

However the Vardanyans' solicitor has applied for a judicial review of the case which will be heard in the High Court.