Campsfield 6th Anniversary

Three hundred people, from Kent, Bristol, Bradford, Leeds, Coventry, Birmingham, Brighton and London, marked the sixth anniversary of the opening of Campsfield Immigrant Detention Centre. They were hassled by the police all day, with every protester photographed and videoed by the police.

Campsfield is surrounded by a 20 foot high, half inch thick metal wall. Protesters were banging on this with their hands to let the refugees in the camp know they were there. Police decided this was causing "criminal damage” to the fence and ordered the protesters to desist. This only encouraged people to bang even harder. Next police charged the demonstrators and began pulling people away from the fence dragging them through a hedgerow and physically throwing them into the field adjacent to the camp. A line of police was then put on the fence to keep protesters away.

Demonstrators let off multicoloured helium balloons that tangled above the 20 foot high fence, their strings caught on the razor wire. Paper planes flew over carrying messages of support in many different languages to the detainees. Protesters played drums, flutes, guitars and makeshift drums with pots and pans.

Group 4, who run Campsfield for the Immigration Service, were clearly nervous of the protest. Bolts along the fence had been welded solid. Detainees were locked indoors until the demonstration finished.

At the end of the demo protesters agreed to continue opposition against existing detention centres Campsfield (Oxfordshire), Harmondsworth (Heathrow), Tinsley (Gatwick), Haslar (Portsmouth), Rochester Prison (Kent) and against the new detention centres planned at Oakington (Cambridgeshire), and Aldington (Kent).

Contact: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC,) 110 Hamstead Road, Birmingham B20 2QS. 0121-554-6947, ncadc@ncadc.demon.co.uk Also: CAGE c/o Notts EF!