Campaigners will gather this weekend to protest plans to reopen an immigration detention centre in Kidlington.

It follows an announcement last month that the government would reopen the doors to the Campsfield House immigration centre three-and-a-half years after it shut.

Ministers claimed the reopened centre, holding up to 400 men, would help ensure there was ‘sufficient detention capacity to safely accommodate individuals ahead of removal’. The centre is expected to reopen in late 2023.

READ MORE: Pictures show mothballed Campsfield

But campaigners, opposition party MPs and the city council has strongly criticised the proposals to reopen the centre, saying they were ‘shocked and saddened’ by the plans.

Protesters are expected to gather in Bonn Square, Oxford, from midday on Saturday, July 16.

Hari Reed, policy and advocacy coordinator for Asylum Welcome, told the Oxford Mail that one purpose of the protest was to ‘make it known from the beginning that local people are watching this, are concerned by this and we will continue to make our voices heard’.

The event will also see the launch of a new umbrella group, The Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed, led by Asylum Welcome and Oxford Against Immigration Detention.

Last month, Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, described it as ‘a disgraceful decision by the Home Office and I will fight it every step of the way’.

She said: “Our community fought for years to close this facility, and will be incredibly dismayed by this announcement. Locking people up for months on end – without giving them any idea how long they’ll be detained – is inhumane and unnecessary."

Maria Brul, campaigns and advocacy co-ordinator at Detention Action, said: “Over 20 years, Campsfield immigration detention centre was the site of a teenage suicide, hunger strikes and the unjust detention of thousands of people seeking asylum.” 

Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown and cabinent member for culture Shaista Aziz said: "Campsfield saw hunger strikes, self-harm and even suicide before it closed. It should stay closed."

READ MORE: Refugee charity 'shocked' by Home Office plan

Campaigners are concerned that Campsfield will house men chosen to be deported from the UK abroad, including to Rwanda.

Justice minister Tom Pursglove said: “Those who have abused the immigration system, including foreign national criminals who have devasted the lives of their victims, should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them. This is what the British public rightly expects.

“Opening a new immigration removal centre, as part of the New Plan for Immigration, will help ensure there is sufficient detention capacity to safely accommodate individuals ahead of removal.”

The Home Office said the centre would provide employment, adding that the welfare of those held in immigration detention centres was of the ‘utmost importance’ and would be considered during the redevelopment of the Kidlington facility.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward