Celle, Germany - Officials are trying to expel a German citizen's sightless wife after 28 years of marriage because she does not know any German, a lawyer charged Friday in the city of Celle.

In a bid to wipe out foreign-language enclaves, Germany recently passed laws that deny long-term residency to anyone who does not pass a test in the German language. Lawyer Ulrich Wallmann said the woman could not study German grammar and vocabulary because she is blind.

Her husband, an ethnic German from Russia, their son, 27, and daughter, 22, moved to Germany two years ago and obtained German citizenship. But officials denied residency to the ethnic Russian wife, 48. She entered Germany on a tourist visa last December.

Wallmann said a tribunal in Celle in the north of Germany had ordered her to be deported by April 16.

Her husband, who lives near Celle, said, "I don't understand. My wife is handicapped. How do they expect her to live in Russia alone?"

The woman has been sightless for the past five years, said the lawyer. Saying there were no audio books in Russian to teach people German, he challenged the language-tests law as inflexible. (dpa)