Two sisters from Stockport will not be deported temporarily to Pakistan where they say they face the threat of LGBT-based violence.

Samina, 52, and Nazia Iqbal, 48, were due to be  removed out of the country this week from Manchester airport after a judge said it was not "credible" that they are gay reports Sky News.

This despite the sisters telling families that they started dating women 20 years ago.

The Home Office now appeared to make a U-turn on the decision.

The Iqbal sisters were not told they would not be put on the flight and moved to the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

The pair are now awaiting a bail hearing on Tuesday.

Speaking to Sky News from Yarl's Wood, Samina said, "We are scared. We have been so upset, crying and don't feel like [we want] anything to eat or drink."

In a statement through their lawyer, the sisters told Sky News: "We both knew we were gay all our lives but we couldn't accept it as it would have put our parents in hardship in Pakistan, and we couldn't see the shame in our parents eyes for us.

"Homosexuality is despised in Pakistan and people are killed for being homosexual."

Nazia and Samina supported each other as they began to try to find love.

"After this we did pursue relationships and tried to keep it secret [but] it made us feel like we were criminals and unclean, we had to maintain our distance in public and enter through back doors to see our partners."

Their brother-in-law, Mohammed Naeem Ali, told Sky News: "I feel totally lost and helpless to try to stop my sisters being sent back to Pakistan.

"They went through a very traumatic period before finally coming over to us in 2010, all of it was unknown to me and their sister. All they kept saying to me was that it was not safe for them living there as two single women - hiding the real reason until recently when they told us in 2018."

He added: "I believe it is an underlying policy to discredit the majority of applications which makes me extremely angry."