Demonstration Campsfield Detention Centre Saturday 27 November 1999:

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 police for every protester, backed up by horses and a helicopter), protesters kept up a noisy protest for two hours before dispersing.

On arrival at Campsfield all transport carrying protesters was forced by the police to park half a mile away.
Every protester was photographed and videod 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 feet high, half inch thick metal wall. Protesters banged 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 multi-coloured helium balloons that tangled on the 20 feet high 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 must understand that these protests will continue until they stop imprisoning people without trial, without reason and without time limit.
The bail measures in the new Asylum Act are deceitful. They pretend to give a presumption of liberty while denying it in practice. Detainees will be expected to provide sureties of £10,000, an impossible sum for people who arrive destitute in the UK.

At the end of the demo protesters agreed to maintain 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). Campsfield: Another

Roof Top Protest
On Sunday 14th November 1999, at 7.00am, two asylum seekers from India climbed onto the roof of Campsfield Detention Centre. One had been in detention for 15 months, the other 11 months. Their demands were that they had been in detention far too long and should be released immediately.

They were also protesting against the extortionate bail demands being made by the Home Office.
Asylum seekers in Campsfield making bail applications are being required to lodge sureties of £10,000. This is an impossible amount for people who mostly arrive penniless in the UK and who have no friends or relatives rich enough to deposit these outrageous sums.

Later in the day the were joined on the roof by another 18 asylum seekers form India.
At 6.00pm all the protesters came down from the roof and were temporally detained in the visitors room before being returned to general circulation. In a welcome change from previous policy none of the protesters was disciplined for their action. Over the last 5 years detainees at Campsfield have regularly been moved to prisons following protests.