Home Secretary Michael Howard yesterday came under pressure to abandon plans to deport a Hong Kong man seeking sanctuary in an English church. Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor, who has the support of fellow party MPs in the southwest of England, hopes he will attract cross-party support for Albert Tong Hing-fai, 43. Mr Tong has begun his second week of sanctuary in the Methodist church at Marazion, near Penzance, west Cornwall. The motion from Mr Taylor, the MP for nearby Truro, said deportation to Hong Kong would separate Mr Tong from his Cornish-born wife, Becky, and three-year-old daughter Monica. If they joined him in Hong Kong they would have nowhere to live and no way of earning a living and their position would be uncertain after the handover. The motion claimed the actions of the Home Secretary in seeking to break up the family were 'inhumane'. On a recent visit to the southwest, Mr Howard said Mr Tong would have to be deported. A group of local people supporting Mr Tong are raising petitions calling on the Home Secretary to defer deportation until his case can hopefully be heard by the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Tong, who has lived illegally in Britain for 17 years, was granted a month's sanctuary at the church, after vanishing from his home in Camborne, Cornwall, just hours before he was due to be deported to Hong Kong. Mr Tong ultimately has no legal protection from the authorities by claiming sanctuary - the right of refuge was abolished more than 370 years ago. The Home Office has said Mr Tong is still subject to a deportation order and can be arrested at any time.