About half the staff at a west Norfolk care home have been ordered to leave Britain, after the licence allowing them to legally work here was withdrawn.

Nine people from the Philippines, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been given 60 days to leave the country.

Some of them have worked at the care home in Docking legally for years.

The Home Office has revoked the Docking House's sponsor licence which gave permission for the workers to be here.

The care home in Station Road is one of five in west Norfolk run by Armscare Ltd, whose managing director Raj Sehgal said: 'We have made this public because we want people to fight for us.

'We have about 20 staff at Docking plus the manager, and nine of them have been sent letters giving them 60 days to leave Britain. We have about 40 residents at the home, who are elderly and vulnerable, and nobody has thought about how this will affect them.

'We have an ongoing recruitment drive, but it's very hard to get new staff in places such as Docking, which are very isolated and hard to get to. It's especially hard coming up to the Christmas and New Year period.

'We have to sponsor immigrants from outside the EU to work in this country and our homes are inspected yearly by the Home Office. This year, it has revoked the licence.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'Businesses that benefit from the immigration system must ensure they have robust compliance systems in place or risk losing their privilege to sponsor international workers.

'We continually monitor all sponsors on the register and we will take action where we believe there is evidence that a sponsor is not fulfilling all of its duties.'

Are you a resident at the home or a relative of someone who lives there? How do you feel about the news? Let us know. Email david.bale2@archant.co.uk