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Close Campsfield Down
6th Anniversary Demonstration at Campsfield Detention Centre
Three hundred people, from Kent, Bristol, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Coventry, Birmingham, Brighton and London, marked the sixth anniversary of the opening of Campsfield Immigrant Detention Centre. Despite a heavy police presence and constant police harassment, (two pigs for every protester, backed up with police horses and a police helicopter), protesters kept up a noisy protest for two hours before dispersing.
On arrival at the detention centre all transport carrying protesters was forced by the police to park half a mile away from the camp. Every protester was photographed and videoed by the police as they arrived at the gates of the camp and the surveillance continued throughout the demonstration only stopping for ten minutes when police attacked the protesters.
Campsfield is surrounded by a 20 foot high, half inch thick metal wall. Protesters banged on it 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. The police then charged the demonstrators and pulled 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 formed at the fence to keep protesters away.
Demonstrators let off multicoloured helium balloons that tangled above the fence, their strings caught on the razor wire. Paper planes flew over carrying messages of support 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. The government need to understand that these protests will continue until they stop imprisoning people without trial, without reason and without time limit. Punishing people for seeking asylum.
At the end of the demo protesters agreed to continue opposition to 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).
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)
110 Hamstead Road
Birmingham B20 2QS
Phone: 0121-554-6947 FAX: 0870-055-4570
E-mail: ncadc@ncadc.demon.co.uk x
Web site: http://www.ncadc.demon.co.uk