A man arrested for immigration crimes was released after protesters went to the scene and tried to “block” law enforcement.
A group of people gathered in south-east London for hours to stop him from leaving the vehicle in which the arrested man was.
Footage from the scene shows a crowd of people sitting on the ground in front of a van in Peckham, while another video shows members of the public shouting “let it go” to the police officers present.
Metropolitan police officers were called to Evan Cook Close shortly after 1:30 pm on Saturday after there were reports of “protesters, preventing immigration staff”.
The man, whom immigration officials tried to detain, is believed to be Nigerian and suspected of having expired his visa.
An activist with the South London branch of Stand Up To Racism, who gave her name only as Nicola, said police had “given up” their attempts to arrest people at the scene.
She said: “Police tried to arrest a number of activists at the front, but they were detained by others who were also sitting and the police refused.
“Finally, after many protests, the police announced that they would release him (arrests) and it took, I don’t know, about half an hour to open the doors, so we all stayed and called for this to happen quickly.”
Authorities later said the arrested man had been released on bail.
A Met spokesman said: “Officers were present and found that the van was prevented from leaving the scene.
“One man was arrested by immigration officials for immigration crimes.”
“We all sat down”
Elinor Janega said people had been warned that an immigration attack was taking place, “so locals came down to block it”.
She added: “We were sitting here, blocking the van and having ice lollies. They brought in more police and tried to break through the crowd by pushing us. We all sat down.”
Labor adviser Reginald Popula said people present at the scene had bypassed the “minibus peacefully”, but said some people had been pushed during the demonstration.
Referring to the fact that the man was released on bail, Mr Popula said: “He has been released, the peaceful protest is powerful.”
“Obstructing them will not prevent them from making commitments.”
A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said: “Obstructing immigration law enforcement teams from doing their job is unacceptable.
“Blocking or obstructing them will not prevent them from taking on the responsibilities that society rightly expects them to fulfill.”
This comes amid controversy over the government’s plans to send more than 30 people to Rwanda on Tuesday.
The Home Office says they arrived in the UK illegally and were sent there to process their asylum applications.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a flight taking asylum seekers to the East African country could continue.
The interior ministry will schedule more flights this year.
Rwanda defended the scheme by asking for a “chance” after Prince Charles was said to have called it “terrifying” in private.
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