Our friends at the Coalition to Close Campsfield have sent us this important update below – do please help them to spread the word!
Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre near Kidlington just north of Oxford closed in 2018 after 25 years of campaigning by people detained and supporters including the Campaign to Close Campsfield. But in 2022 plans were announced to reopen it.
Every relevant elected body in the county – Parish, County, Cherwell District & Oxford City Councils – plus local MP Calum Miller, all opposed the reopening.
But in early December the first detainees arrived.
Campsfield has been ‘refurbished’ by Galliford Try at a cost of £70 million. It will be run by MITIE, whose record at Harmondsworth elicited a scorching report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons only last year (‘the worst conditions [ever] seen in immigration detention’). The government says there will be a Phase 2 new-build to bring the number of beds up from 140 to 400 by 2030.
To get round the solid local opposition, the government plans to pursue a Crown Development (CDO) route that cuts out the local planning authority, Cherwell District Council. The CDO route effectively invites one government minister to agree with the wishes of another despite the clear wishes of local people.
More detention means more years of danger, misery and harm for detainees. Mistreatment of vulnerable people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, is deeply ingrained in the system. Immigration detention is not the answer to the arrival of people in the UK, regardless of how they get here.
Alternatives do exist! Stand up for human rights and join the fight to close Campsfield and end immigration detention!
