GB News has shone a light on the complex network of organisations that are working tirelessly to block Britain's migrant deportations.
It comes as the first migrant is deported under Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal.
The Indian national, who arrived in the UK by small boat in August, was put on a flight to France on Thursday morning.
The deportation follows three days of failed attempts by the Home Office to remove migrants under the scheme.
As GB News' Home Editor Mark White pointed out shortly after the flight took off, the fact that only one migrant has been deported after a string of failed attempts underscores the complex legal apparatus that is working against the Home Office.
Who are the key players?
Scores of charities and legal entities work around the clock to assist illegal immigrants who make the perilous journey to Britain.
Below are some of the key players involved, followed by a closer look at what they offer:
Asylum seekers looking for a lawyer:
- Detention Action
- Association of Visitors in Detention
- JRS UK
- Women for Refugee Women
- Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group
- SOAS detainee Support
- Beyond Detention
Medical organisation that may be able to provide help:
- Medical Justice
Immigration and Asylum Lawyers and legal representatives that may be able to help:
- Asylum Aid
- Duncan Lewis solicitors
- Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Small boat crossings have been intercepted by Border Force
| PADetention Action
Detention Action offers support to anyone who has been detained under immigration powers in prisons.
Their website reads: "The current immigration detention system is expensive, ineffective and unjust. It destroys lives.
"We need an immigration system based on cooperation, not coercion, that respects people’s liberty and ensures them access to justice.
"The mass detention of migrants does nothing to help the immigration system or to manage people’s cases with dignity. It destroys trust between the immigration authorities and the individuals and communities affected.
"Detention Action runs an alternative to detention for men who have experienced or are at risk of long-term detention."
The GDWG operates out of Brook House Immigration Removal Centre, next to Gatwick Airport
|PA
Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group
First set up in 1995 when the UK Immigration Service began to detain people at a small holding centre near Gatwick Airport, the charity says it "aims to support people affected by immigration detention".
A spokesman for the group said: "[We believe] each person held has a right to be treated with respect, whatever the outcome of their case.
"Our staff team co-ordinate and support volunteers, as well as providing support and advocacy to detained people.
"We are non-party political and do not represent any vested interests.
"We use our own insight into the experiences of people held in detention to try to improve conditions, inform policy and challenge negative images of people affected by the immigration process, both through our own work and by networking with other organisations who provide support."
The Gatwick sites have seen multiple protests
|PA
Medical Justice
Medical Justice was set up in 2005 when a Zimbabwean torture survivor who had been on hungerstrike in immigration detention became too weak to walk.
After the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre refused to arrange for him to be taken to hospital, a visitor contacted an independent doctor who got involved.
Only after the High Court issued an order was the man released to hospital, on the verge of organ failure, handcuffed, on day 28 of his hunger strike.
After his recovery, he set up the group, calling itself Medical Justice.
A spokesman for the group said: "Medical Justice is the only charity in the UK to send independent volunteer clinicians to visit people held in Immigration Removal Centres across the UK and document their scars of torture and serious medical conditions.
"Evidence from our casework is the platform for our research into systemic failures in healthcare provision, the harm caused by these shortcomings, as well as the toxic effect of immigration detention itself on the health of people in detention."
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, in West Drayton
|PA
Asylum Aid
Asylum Aid is a group of specialist solicitors, claiming to offer legal support to unaccompanied children, people who have experienced torture and gender based violence, people who have been trafficked and those who are stateless.
The group says it provides legal support marginalised communities and offers advice to other solicitors.
Reacting to disruption outside hotels over the summer, a spokesman for the group said: "Over the last weeks, we have been deeply alarmed about the far-right attacks outside asylum hotels and threats of more organised violence across the country.
"We strongly condemn the racist and vitriolic targeting of people seeking protection in the UK. We stand in solidarity with the men, women, children and families at the sharp end of this hostility, who deserve to live in dignity and with safety.
"It is heartbreaking to witness the fear, sadness and disappointment among the people we support, as the painful memories of far-right riots from last summer are still fresh in their minds.
"The horrific and recurring attacks are a direct outcome of the constant vilification and scapegoating of people seeking asylum in our politics and the media.
"Asylum hotels have been at the forefront of these blatantly false depictions, serving as a distraction from the true nature of these spaces.
"These 'hotels' are neither luxurious nor safe. They are dilapidated and squalid spaces, where people are forced to live in cramped and harmful conditions for months or even years.
"As clinical and legal experts, the Helen Bamber Foundation and Asylum Aid have been calling for the closure of hotels as asylum accommodation for years.
"But they must not be replaced with crumbling, overcrowded and isolated large sites. People seeking asylum should be housed in communities through work with local authorities, charities and other stakeholders, so they can rebuild their lives with dignity in the UK."
Protesters took to the streets in Epping in their continued demonstration against the hotel
| PAJoint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is a group of five solicitors that claims to deal with "all areas of asylum and immigration law and we are recognised as experts in this field".
A spokesman for the group said: "We employ five solicitors and our legal team represents clients at all stages of the legal process, including: applications to the Home Office, entry clearance, appeals and judicial review.
"For more than half a century, JCWI has been challenging policies that lead to discrimination, destitution and the denial of rights.
"We’ve been providing much-needed legal advice services to the people who need them most.
"We’ve helped tens of thousands of people secure their status, keep their families together and escape poverty. And we’ve consistently been one of the leading voices for a fairer, more just immigration system that works for everyone."