A group of people gathered in south-east London for hours to stop a vehicle in which the detainee was riding to leave. Footage from the scene showed a crowd sitting on the ground in front of a van in Peckham, while another video showed members of the audience shouting “let him go” to the police officers present. Metropolitan Police officers were called to Evan Cook Close shortly after 1.30pm on Saturday after reports of “protesters obstructing immigration officers”. The man the immigration officers tried to arrest is a Nigerian man who was suspected of staying in his visa. A Stand Up To Racism activist in south London, who only gave her name as Nicola, said police had “stopped” trying to arrest people at the scene. He said: “Police tried to arrest several activists at the front, but were detained by others who were also sitting and the police left. “And finally, after a lot of protests, the police announced that they were going to release him (arrest him) and it took, I do not know, about half an hour to really open the doors and we all stayed. and asked for this to happen quickly. “ Authorities later said the detainee had been released on bail. A Met spokesman said: “Officers were present and found that a truck was being prevented from leaving the site. “A man was arrested by immigration police for immigration offenses.” “We all sat down” Eleanor Janega said people were warned there was an immigration raid “so the locals came down to stop it”. He added: “We were sitting here blocking the truck and having ice lollipops. They brought in more police and tried to break into the crowd by pushing us. We all sat down.” Labor adviser Reginald Popula said people present at the scene had “peacefully surrounded the truck”, but claimed that some had pushed during the protest. Referring to the fact that the man was released on bail, Mr. Popoola said: “He was released, the peaceful protest is strong.” “Obstructing them will not prevent them from taking office” A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said: “It is unacceptable to prevent immigration enforcement teams from doing their job. “Blocking or obstructing them will not prevent them from taking on the tasks that the public rightly expects them to perform.” It 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 are being sent there to have their asylum applications processed. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a flight transporting asylum seekers to the East African country could take place. The Home Office is planning more flights this year. Rwanda defended the plan, calling for it to be “given a chance”, after Prince Charles was said to have privately called it “disgusting”.
