Emmanuel, a 14-year-old boy with sickle-cell anaemia whose school friends fought to prevent him and his family being deported to Nigeria, has failed in his attempt to have his asylum case reassessed.

The Immigration minister, Liam Byrne, had been considering looking again into the family's treatment but he said there is "no question the family have been in any way disadvantaged".

Emmanuel's mother, Helen, who says she cannot give her surname for fear of reprisals at home, said from her cell in Yarl's Wood detention centre, Bedfordshire, "Oh God. This is it." Alex Stupple-Harris, a 17-year-old friend who led the pupils' campaign in Plymouth, said: "I'm fuming. We're all trying to work out what we can do next". The family have removal directions for today.