The term "failed asylum seeker" doesn't usually elicit huge sympathy in the UK - so why did thousands rally behind one man deported this week?
About 25,000 people seek refugee status in the UK each year and a majority are denied permission to remain in the country.
Despite recent concerns about their treatment at detention centres like Yarl's Wood, their individual names and stories do not usually register with the general public.
Majid Ali, a young man whose name and story went viral this week, was an exception.
On social media, nearly 16,000 messages of support for Ali were posted from across the UK - and especially from Scotland.
People tweeted with a campaigning hashtag, "Don't Deport Majid".
Many expressed fear that Ali, who arrived in the UK in 2010 and was studying English at City of Glasgow College, could face persecution and even death if deported back to his native Pakistan. "I'm deeply ashamed to be British," one woman tweeted.
The social media buzz didn't work: Ali appears to have been flown back to Pakistan on Tuesday night.
His asylum claim revolved around the troubled politics of his home area of Balochistan, which has seen long-running violent conflict between separatists and the state.
He argued his brother had been subject to an "enforced disappearance" by security forces and that other family members were killed. Despite these claims, UK legal authorities rejected his application.
So why the publ ic sympathy for this one case - and what could a hashtag, created after the system had rejected his claims, hope to actually achieve?
The particular character of Ali as an individual, and his popularity on campus, seems to be one reason his story generated sympathy.
It was his lecturer at City of Glasgow College, Rosie Quin, who first alerted student campaigners to his story. "He worked hard, he contributed in class, he socialised with his friends in college," she told BBC Trending. "He was just the kind of student ever teacher wants in their class.
"On Tuesday evening when I saw on social media that he had been deported - obviously you just feel dejected and sad," she said.
Another important player in the social media trend was the National Union of Students in Scotland, whose president Gordon Maloney explained why they started a hashtag - and why he thinks it took off.
Recent events, from fears about conditions in detention centres, to the plight of those seeking to travel to Europe across the Mediterranean, have led many to "question the narrative" around refugees and asylum, he says.
"It was such a clear cut example of someone who should have been allowed to remain. . . that it sparked those underlying feelings," he told BBC Trending.
"People were saying they were shocked and appalled by the UK government's approach," he added. Many of those tweeting were Scottish MPs and MSPs responding to their constituents feelings on the case - with an early day motionregistered in the House of Commons.
In Majid Ali's story, then, various ingredients came together to make him a popular cause: his likeability, a story that resonated, and local political interest.
That makes him an exception. Most asylum seekers never trend online - but there may also be good reasons for them to stay away from social media campaigns.
"It may raise awareness of your case that might help, but it's also got risks involved," says Michael Collins at Right to Remain, a charity that advises people seeking refugee status in east London.
"It can be dangerous if you're seeking protection in your home country," he says, because it will make people aware of your return.
"People need to be clear: a hashtag trending in the UK is also trending back home."
For all of his caution though, Mr Collins says there have been instances where social media campaigns for failed asylum seekers appear to have helped them in their legal cases. "It might bring in legal or expert help," he says.
An example is Roseline Akhalu, who feared death if she were deported to Nigeria, because her medical treatment would end. She was supported by a hashtag ("Save Rose") in 2012 and 2013, and was also backed supported by celebrities such as Colin Firth.
In Akhalu's case, the Home Office delayed a decision over her removal, meaning there was time for advice to be offered to her by lawyers who had noticed the case. She then won an appeal against removal.
Majid Ali, reportedly now back in Pakistan, has not had similar success. But beyond the individual, do hashtags have any effect on the debate over asylum and wider immigration procedures?
"No example of an individual being deported is just about that individual, it's also about a system - and that has to change," argues Mr Maloney, the NUS Scotland president.
With the asylum system under strain, changes to procedures have been floated recently - and there is an ongoing review of conditions in immigration detention centres - but it's not yet clear what difference, if any, these would make to a case like that of Majid Ali.
Research by Sumaya Bakhsh and India Rakusen
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