Britain has granted asylum to 29 Syrian “White Helmets” civil defence volunteers and up to 70 family members, The Telegraph has learned.

The first family has already been resettled in the UK, while the rest are due to move early next month.

A total of 98 White Helmets and 324 of their relatives were evacuated out of southern Syria through Israel to Jordan in July, in an unprecedented rescue mission conceived by Britain, Germany and Canada, and supported by Israel, Jordan, the US and the United Nations.

The civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets for their distinctive white hard hats, operate in rebel-held areas of Syria and act like an informal emergency services, funded in part by the UK government.

They have brought some of the most shocking images of the civil war to public attention, filming rescues which have saved tens of thousands of civilian lives.