A MOTHER and her young son who were due to be deported yesterday won a last minute reprieve.

Just hours before Gabrielle Batola and her four-year-old son Mathieu were due to board a flight back to the Republic of Congo they were told their deportation would not be taking place.

Gabrielle was instead returned to Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, were she has been since before Christmas.

It is the fourth time she has been on the verge of being deported.

Gabrielle’s solicitor Naheed Ghauri, of Dent Abram, said: “I have spoken to her myself this morning and she described being taken to the airport in the early hours.

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“I then got a call to say she had not been put on the flight. “ No apparent explanation has been given for the last minute change of heart by immigration chiefs, although a strong campaign has been waged by Gabrielle’s supporters who feel her deportation is unjust.

Among them is the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, who has personally written to the immigration office pleading for Gabrielle, 33, to be allowed to remain in the UK.

She settled in Southampton after fleeing from the Republic of Congo six years ago.

Since then she has made a home for herself and had her son, who is not afforded any extra rights to stay because he was born here.

She has been battling to remain in the UK after her visa to stay expired, claiming her life would be in danger because her family had controversial political links in the country that borders the Democratic Republic of Congo – currently in the grip of a civil war.

Her legal team were today attempting to secure her release from the detention centre where she and Mathieu spent Christmas and New Year.

They hope a court will allow Gabrielle to be freed on bail while efforts are made to gather evidence that proves her life would be in danger.

An appeal against her removal has also been lodged at the European Court of Justice that had indicated they would need to see such evidence before they could consider intervening.

The Home Office said they were unable to comment on individual cases.

Previously officials said that they only remove people when an independent court has agreed with the decision.