A KOSOVAR father who was forced from his home and beaten for two hours by Serb police today spoke of his joy at the birth of his daughter in Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn.

Arben Ademi, 23, and his wife Valdona, 20, came to Blackburn from a refugee camp in Macedonia after a traumatic month in which the couple did not know whether Arben would escape from his homeland.

The pair were forced from their homes in Podujeve in northern Kosovo and walked for 16 hours to the capital Pristina.

From there they got on a coach which was heading for Macedonia, only for Serb police to capture Arben and beat him for two hours.

But Arben survived the beating and was later reunited with his wife before completing their journey to safety in Macedonia.

They were later chosen to flown to England before being selected to move to the two homes for the elderly in Blackburn which the council had provided for the refugees.

Valdona was heavily pregnant when she arrived in Lancashire and eventually gave birth to her daughter, weighing 8lbs, at Queen's Park Hospital on Thursday afternoon. The couple have yet to think of a name for their child.

Arben said: "This is a wonderful time for us and we are so grateful to the English people and the people of Blackburn for what they have done.

"We are looking forward to going back to our homeland, although we have no home to go to."

The baby girl is the second Kosovar child to be born in Blackburn since the refugees were housed at Shadsworth House, in Dunoon Drive, and Laneside, in Shorrock Lane.

The first, born in June, was a boy named Clirim, which means liberation.

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