Immigration centre extension plan sparks concern

Campsfield House in Kidlington has applied to build a "changing room and welfare room"

There have been renewed calls for the government not to reopen an immigration removal centre after it submitted plans for an extension.

Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, has applied to Cherwell District Council to build a "changing room and welfare room".

Charity Asylum Welcome said it "fundamentally" objects to the centre reopening later this year.

The Home Office said centres like Campsfield played "a vital role" in controlling the UK's borders.

Protesters gathered at the Langford Lane entrance to Campsfield in November 2023

The facility closed in 2018 after years of problems - including hunger strikes, self-harm and suicides - but is due to reopen later this year with increased capacity.

The Home Office said the site would house 400 men who were "foreign nationals liable for removal from the UK".

The decision lead to a protest in November 2023, called by the Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed and Oxford Student Action for Refugees.

Mark Goldring, director of Oxford-based Asylum Welcome, said reopening it was "a massively backward step".

"We can only hope conditions are better than they were last time Campsfield was open when many people suffered from mental health stress trauma," he said.

"Our biggest concern is the existence of the camp at all, rather than the details of the planning application."

Oxford resident Martha Hamilton said she was "deeply disappointed by this latest planning application, which disregards the widespread local opposition to the proposed reopening".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The government is committed to the removal of foreign criminals and those with no right to be in the UK.

"Immigration removal centres play a vital role in controlling our borders."

The Home Office said centres like Campsfield played "a vital role" in controlling the UK's borders