ASYLUM campaigners staged a nationwide blockade of immigration offices yesterday in protest over the forced removal of asylum seekers.

ASYLUM campaigners staged a nationwide blockade of immigration offices yesterday in protest over the forced removal of asylum seekers.

Activists chained themselves to railings and tried to stop staff entering Border and Immigration Agency offices in Glasgow, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Bristol.

Strathclyde Police arrested four people after campaigners gathered at around 5.30am at the Brand Street offices of the BIA in Govan, Glasgow. A spokeswoman said they had been detained overnight and a report would be submitted to the procurator-fiscal.

No Borders Network UK, which campaigns against the forced removal of asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected, claimed the action had prevented immigration officials carrying out dawn raids to detain people.

Mel Vegan, a member of Unity, a Glasgow-based asylum activist network, said: "This is a nationwide protest. We want Scotland and the UK to be a place that welcomes people who seek asylum."

A Border and Immigration Agency spokesman said: "We accept asylum can be a complex and emotive issue.

"But failed asylum seekers who have no right to remain in the country, and who do not leave, will be removed."