The British government acted quickly on Thursday to block the prospect of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's elder daughters finding sanctuary in the UK.
The two women, their 10 children and possibly their mother are at the center of an attempt by a cousin of the dictator to create an Iraqi leadership "family in exile" in the city of Leeds in the north of England.
Ezzedin al-Majid, who was given asylum in Leeds after fleeing Iraq in 1995, was detained by immigration officers for more than an hour after flying into Leeds-Bradford airport from Baghdad.
The UK Home Office and the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street, London, then issued statements saying that no one from Saddam's immediate family had a hope of getting asylum in Britain.
The issue may still arise, however, if the two women, Raghad and Rana Hussein, manage the unlikely feat of traveling from their hiding place in northern Iraq to a UK port of entry.
The junior Home Office minister Beverley Hughes admitted that it would be legally impossible to avoid considering an application if they reached Britain's doorstep.
"Were they to get to this country, if they made a claim, it would have to go through a normal process," she said.
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