A Kurdish family who lived in Kent for three years has been awarded a six-figure pay-out from the Home Office after they were detained in Scotland for over a year.

Yurdugal Ay and her four children, then all aged under 14, were kept at the Dungavel detention centre in Lanarkshire during their battle with the courts.

Having settled in Northfleet they were deported to Germany in August 2003 after their fight to stay in this country failed but have now been awarded compensation.

It is understood a six-figure out of court settlement payment has been agreed between the family's legal representatives and the Home Office

The family's legal team had claimed they were detained unlawfully and for too long.

The Ay family arrived in Germany from Turkey in the late 1980s where their bid for refugee status was rejected on several occasions.

They arrived by lorry in the UK in 1999 following which moves to deport the family began.

They were finally sent back to German in 2003.

The payout is in relation to the year they spent in the Scottish detention centre.

The Home Office declined to comment on individual cases.

However, a UK Border Agency spokesperson said: "In March 2011 we established a new family returns process that ended the detention of children.

"This ensures that families with no right to be in the UK are given every opportunity to leave without the need for further action and are offered assistance at every stage.

"As a last resort where all voluntary options have failed, families may be held in our pre-departure accommodation at Cedars, which is run in partnership with Barnado's."