A demonstration to prevent a detention centre from reopening will take place in Kidlington this weekend.

Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre was used to detain people for 25 years until it closed in 2018.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Labour’s intention to reopen the centre in August this year.

The Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed group organised a protest for Saturday, November 30 in Langford Lane, Kidlington, to oppose the plan.

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Coalition spokesperson Bill MacKeith said: “As chair of parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, Yvette Cooper signed off on reports that criticised the Home Office’s ‘utter failure’ and ‘shockingly cavalier’ approach to detention.

“It is a different story now she’s in government, where it is hard to find a minister prepared to stand up to the Home Office in-built cruelty and hostility to people who come to this country.  

"Instead, she is calling for more detention and more deportations.”

The campaign group is an Oxfordshire based coalition of organisations around the county, including refugee charities and universities, which argues that detention centres are not an effect measure in changing immigration.

Its statement says: “We, residents of Oxfordshire who care about human rights and are proud of Oxford’s status as a City of Sanctuary, are appalled by the news that the government intends to reopen Campsfield House as an immigration removal centre.

“As we know from the previous 25 years of Campsfield’s existence, more detention means more years of danger, misery and harm for detainees.

"Reopening Campsfield would also represent another significant betrayal by a government which committed in 2016 to reducing the number of people in immigration detention.”

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Motions calling for Yvette Cooper to reverse her decision to reopen the centre has passed in multiple Oxfordshire councils, including the county council, Kidlington Parish Council, and Oxford City and Cherwell District Councils.

The motion in Cherwell District Council, which the Kidlington centre falls within the boundaries of, asked the Home Secretary to not only abandon the reopening, but also outline plans to reduce, rather than increase, the number of people in detention centres.

It also asked her to focus on increasing the processing of asylum claims and develop more “humane policy”, including safe and legal routes to claim asylum.

The campaign also has support from Oxford and District Labour Party, which wrote a letter to the Home Office, and local MPs Calum Miller and Layla Moran.

Campsfield House was a controversial centre while it was open too with weekly protests from human rights campaigners and several scandals coming out of its practices.

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