A HOME Office tweet attacking “activist lawyers” who “disrupt” deportations has provoked an angry response from legal experts.

The department put out a post last night explaining how it is working to remove people with no right to remain in the UK, but added that “current return regulations are rigid and open to abuse allowing activist lawyers to delay and disrupt returns”.

It went on to say that soon the UK “will no longer be bound by EU laws and can negotiate our own return arrangements”.

READ MORE: WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon's blistering attack on 'deeply inhumane' asylum system

The short clip was branded “obscene” by Paul James Cardwell, a law professor at Strathclyde University.

“Difficult to know where to begin with this obscene clip, a day after a young woman died of extreme poverty after claiming asylum and being unable to work,” he wrote.

The professor went on: “Current regulations are ‘open to abuse’. What ‘abuse’?  For an immigration-obsessed government in power for 10 years you might have expected to have solved this if it is such a big issue.

“Attack on ‘activist lawyers’. Lawyers act on behalf of their clients and use the means allowed *in law* to get the best result for their clients. But aim here is to cast the blame wider than migrants themselves.”

He, along with EU law professor Steve Peers, pointed out that when EU regulations no longer apply returning people to other countries will be “much harder”.

Cardwell added that as safe routes into the UK become more limited, asylum seekers will be “pushed furthermore into using ever more dangerous routes”.

He concluded: “At the heart of this are *people*. Human beings. Who are vulnerable and desperate. What does it say of our society (let alone ‘Global Britain’) when a gov department directs such hatred towards such individuals?”

Historian Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley pointed out that Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights forbids the deportation of people to countries where they will be tortured or killed. “Those ‘activist lawyers’ are just … lawyers,” she said.

READ MORE: Home Office's 'activist lawyers' tweet shows government is not above the law

Meanwhile solicitor and blogger Nearly Legal also picked up on the post.

He asked: “Where are we when the Home Office official twitter account is putting out bilge about ‘activist lawyers’ frustrating deportations?

“This is the Home Office officially attacking the rule of law and setting up lawyers for abuse or worse. This is outright demagoguery.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

The post came after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon demanded reform of the UK’s “deeply inhumane” asylum system following the death of Mercy Baguma.

The Ugandan mother was found dead in Glasgow on Saturday with her “starving” one-year-old son by her side. It is understood that she had been “functionally destitute” since losing her right to work when her leave to remain expired.

Speaking at FMQs yesterday, Sturgeon said: “Like, probably, most people in this country I find myself consumed with sadness, but also real anger at the death of Mercy Baguma. First and foremost my thoughts go to her family and friends.

“The exact circumstances of her tragic death are not yet know, and I would support any efforts to establish the facts of this tragic case.”

She added: “But what I think we can all say, is that the UK asylum system is not just broken, it is deeply inhumane and it must be changed.

“People who come here because they need a place of safety should have support, even more so in this time of crisis. Asylum is wholly reserved to Westminster, but this government, as a whole, has repeatedly raised our concerns about the accommodation of asylum seekers.

“We need wholesale reform of the UK's asylum system and we need to start from the principles of dignity, of empathy and of support for our fellow human beings who come to this country in need of support at desperate times in their lives.”