Keep detention centre closed, says QARN

‘Buildings are in disrepair, healthcare is limited and residents may experience bullying and racism.’

The new Labour government intends to continue with the reopening of the controversial Campsfield House immigration detention centre, according to the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN). The facility in Oxfordshire was shut in 2018 after years of complaints about conditions, riots and escapes. Though ‘a time of rejoicing’, said Bridget Walker, from QARN, the last government proposed to reopen the centre, which the new Labour government is enacting. Yvette Cooper, home secretary, said the government would ‘establish a system that is better controlled and managed’.

The plans have sparked widespread opposition, including protests by Oxford students. Previous plans for reopening the facility also prompted protests.

Bridget Walker, who has campaigned against the facility for twenty years, said on the Quakers in Britain website: ‘Recent inspection reports record serious failings in all eight main detention centres. Buildings are in disrepair, healthcare is limited and residents may experience bullying and racism… This makes it all the more urgent to try and prevent the reopening of another centre.’ The government also plans to reopen the Haslar Immigration Removal Centre, near Portsmouth. This was closed in 2015 after a report described it as ‘expensive and damaging to detainees’.

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