SUPPORTERS of a Filipino nurse facing deportation are continuing to rally to keep her in the country and working at Southamp-ton General Hospital.

The Daily Echo yesterday reported how A&E nurse Corazon Caro, 29, had been told she had no right to appeal against deportation after she accidentally allowed her visa and work permit to expire by five months.

A dejected Miss Caro said: "All I want to do is get back to work. My department needs nurses and they need me."

Her MP, Alan Whitehead, has already written to Home Office minister Tony McNulty MP in support of the nurse.

Yesterday the Southampton Itchen MP said he had written again to Mr McNulty, saying if Miss Caro's employers, Southampton General Hospital, applied for a fresh work permit and Miss Caro applied again for leave to remain, she should be allowed to stay.

"I am continuing to support this nurse," Mr Whitehead said. "She is doing a job which is very important to Southampton and the hospital service."

He added he hoped to receive a reply soon.

Southampton General Hospital has already obtained a new work permit for the nurse and her main campaigner, Allan Reilly, a UNISON branch secretary, has also written to Mr McNulty.

He has asked that the minister intervene and allow Miss Caro to make an in-country visa application.

In the letter Mr Reilly said: "The judge's decision is an absolute disgrace. Miss Caro should have a right under the Human Rights Act to be granted a hearing."

Mr Reilly told the Daily Echo: "If the Home Office minister was in A&E he would be very happy to have someone like Corazon looking after him.

"She is a highly-skilled and trained A&E nurse and the people of Southampton will suffer without her."

Miss Caro, who has been working at Southampton General Hospital for three and a half years, said she was hopeful of staying but had been considering practical alternatives.

"I would put on my uniform and go back to work tomorrow, but if Britain does not want me I will have to go somewhere else," she said.