MSPs Sandra White, of the Scottish National Party, and Rosie Kane, of the Scottish Socialist Party, led the demonstration in Glasgow.

Refugees, church groups, teachers and union members joined the protest outside the Brand Street offices.

Strathclyde Police estimated about 200 people attended but organisers said nearly 500 had turned up to protest.

Pupils from Drumchapel High School also joined the morning demonstration.

Their campaign against the deportation of their former classmates, the Vucaj children, won the Public Campaign of the Year award last month.

Candlelit vigil

Ms White said they would not stop the action until the Home Office agreed to end so-called dawn raids taking asylum seekers to removal centres.

The MSP said they also wanted to see the Glasgow immigration office closed and an amnesty for all refugees who had been in Scotland for two years or more.

Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing said the protest, which involved a blockade and dawn candlelit vigil, was to prevent vans leaving the centre to arrest failed asylum seekers.

Members of the National Union of Journalists, the Fire Brigades Union and teachers from the Educational Institute of Scotland attended.

The blockade is the latest in a series of protests about the use of dawn raids to deport failed asylum seekers.