THE widow of a Pakistani man who died in custody awaiting deportation in Manchester has been refused permission to enter Britain to attend his inquest.

An inquest into Tahir Mehmood’s death opened in Manchester on Wednesday and is expected to last a week, but his wife Misbah Tahir, who lives in Pakistan, was refused entry permission by the Home Office.

An appeal was rejected by the Immigration Tribunal.

Gary McIndoe, the solicitor who handled the appeal, said the Immigration Tribunal rejected the argument that Mr Mehmood’s wife’s presence at the inquest was essential in order to ensure transparency of proceedings.

The inquest into the Mr Mehmood’s death heard this week that Mr Mehmood was taken to Pennine House, a short-term holding centre run by private contractor Tascor at Manchester Airport, after his work visa expired. He collapsed and died there on July 26 2013.

Coroner Nigel Meadows was told Mr Mehmood had complained of illness to his brother-in-law Nadeem Iqbal Gondal.

Mr Gondal said that Mr Mehmood had phoned him on the day of his death to ask him to describe his symptoms to a nurse at Pennine House.

After the nurse spoke to Mr Gondal, Mr Mehmood was given medication and was taken back to his room.

North West Ambulance Service paramedic Steven O’Reilly told the coroner that when he and colleagues went into Mr Mehmood’s room, he was lying on his bed.

No-one was carrying out CPR so the paramedics moved Mr Mehmood off the bed and onto the floor and started resuscitation straight away.

Mr O’Reilly explained that a hard surface was needed in order to carry out resuscitation.

Mr Mehmood was also given six defibrillator shocks over an hour but this was unsuccessful.

Demonstrations are taking place outside the inquest, organised by Manchester-based human rights organisation Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research.

The inquest continues.