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The Home Office yesterday refused to accept that escaping from slavery in Britain would entitle someone to refugee status.

Mende Nazer, who ran away from a Sudanese diplomat's London home in controversial circumstances, saying she had been kept as a slave, has had her asylum claim rejected.

In a ruling that puzzled human rights activists, the Home Office said to be imprisoned to do unpaid forced labour would not "constitute persecution" as a serious violation of Ms Nazer's human rights.

The diplomat who was was allegedly forcing Ms Nazer to work as a maid was acting chargé d'affaires in London for Sudan's fundamentalist Islamist regime.

The ruling, sent after a two-year delay on behalf of the home secretary, David Blunkett, says: "Whilst slavery may exist in some parts of Sudan, the practice is not condoned by the Sudanese government."

Last week the Guardian disclosed that the Foreign Office, is actively investigating the claims made by Ms Nazer.

They include the allegation that she had been shipped to London on false visa papers obtained from the British embassy in Khartoum on behalf of the diplomat concerned, Abdel al-Koronky.

Mr Koronky, who has now returned to Sudan, denies all the allegations. He has successfully sued one newspaper for libel, and says Ms Nazer was not his slave but an au pair who was free to leave at any time and whose asylum claim had been made to discredit the Sudanese regime.

His London spokesman, David Hoile, said last week that Ms Nazer had merely become "homesick".

But international controversy has mounted since Ms Nazer, 22, published her autobiography in Germany, called Slave.

She gives a detailed account of abduction by Arab slave traders at the age of 13 from her village in the Nuba moun tains, and of a subsequent life of beatings and abuse in a wealthy home in Khartoum.

She claims she was then flown over with documents that described her as older than she was, and installed in the Koronky home in Willesden Green, north London, as an unpaid servant. She was not beaten, but says she was never paid wages.

After three months, she says, she made contact with Nuba exiles in London and escaped.

Caroline Cox, who has campaigned against slavery in Sudan, said yesterday: "I have met Mende Nazer on a number of occasions and her account is consistent with what I have witnessed at first hand in Sudan.

"Since publishing her life story it is clear that she would be in extreme danger were she to be sent back."

But in its rejection letter the Home Office cast doubt on Ms Nazer's credibility.

It said she should have sought asylum as soon as she set foot in Britain.

The Home Office also said the fact that her age did not match that given on her original visa application counted against her.

Lawyers for Ms Nazer were yesterday planning to appeal, and Lady Cox wrote urgently to Mr Blunkett asking him to reverse the decision.

In its letter of refusal the Home Office immigration section in Liverpool conceded that slavery still went on in Sudan.

"The taking of slaves, particularly in the war zones and their transport to parts of central and northern Sudan continues." But a ceasefire was now in existence, so she would not be in danger if deported. Nor need she fear reprisals.

In its most controversial section, the letter says Ms Nazer's claims about her London life as a slave in the Koronky household would not amount to "serious violations of human rights".

It adds: "The secretary of state does not believe that the alleged treatment you received whilst living in the UK would constitute persecution."

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