Upcoming events
Tuesday 3rd February
Our next organising meeting
We hold virtual meetings on the first Tuesday of each month.
Our next organising meeting will be on Tuesday 3rd February at 6pm.
All are very welcome to attend.
Recent events
Saturday 31 January, 2026
Demonstration to Close Campsfield
Over 30 supporters of the Coalition to Close Campsfield gathered on Langford Lane, Kidlington, a few kilometres north of Oxford. We came to show our opposition to the re-opening and planned expansion of Campsfield House immigrant detention centre.
We used group chants and recorded music with powerful amplification to alert the men imprisoned inside that they are not forgotten, that outside the gates there is a strong support movement.
Again, we used banners and placards to help passing members of the public remember that detaining people is wrong.
Wednesday, 3 December, 2025
Outrage as first detainees are brought to Campsfield House
Supporters of the Coalition to Close Campsfield gathered at Campsfield House, Langford Lane, in Kidlington, a village north of Oxford, at 4pm Wednesday 4 December, to protest as the first people were brought from other detention centres. They reached out to local people and to workers entering and leaving the detention centre with banners, signs, placards, and with chants. Most wore black, to in sorrow and solidarity.
At 6pm, the protest shifted to Oxford’s city centre. 50+ coalition supporters united to condemn this government’s needless performative cruelty.
Coalition supporter Bill MacKeith said:
“It is awful that now we’ll see suffering and abuse at this site again. It is truly shocking that this is being imposed on those who will be detained and on local people, all of whose elected representative bodies have long opposed it. Reopening Campsfield is a terrible step backwards. It ignores evidence, public opinion and basic humanity. We will be there tomorrow in solidarity with the first detainees as they arrive.”
Last year Cherwell District Council joined Kidlington Parish, Oxford City and Oxfordshire County Council, as well as local MP Calum Miller, in opposing the plans to reopen and expand Campsfield.
Campsfield has been ‘refurbished’ at a cost £70 million by Galliford Try. It will be run by MITIE, whose record at Harmondsworth elicited a scorching report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons only last year (‘the worst conditions [ever] seen in immigration detention’). The government has announced this 160-bed Phase 1 will be followed by a Phase 2 new-build to bring the number of beds up to 400 by 2030.
To get round the solid local opposition, the government plans to pursue a Crown Development (CDO) route that cuts out the local planning authority, Cherwell District Council. The CDO route effectively invites one government minister to agree with the wishes of another despite the clear wishes of local people.
Bail for Immigration Detainees also condemned the reopening of Campsfield.
Coalition to Close Campsfield supporters protest its re-opening on site at 4pm on 3 December 
Coalition supporters with banner and placards 
Coalition supporters holding up banner from over a decade ago, reading “Stop the detentions. Close down Campsfield. Refugees are not criminals.” 
Placard reading “Dignity not detention” 
Placard reading “Build communities, not cages.” 
Placards reading “Build bridges not walls” and “Immigration detention. What a cruel invention.” 
Placard reading “Safe routes save lives”
22 november, 2025
National Demonstration to Keep Campsfield Closed
plus
organising discussion & refreshments
at Exeter Hall, Kidlington, to build the movement to end detention and deportations.
Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed banner 
Oxford & District Trades Council banner 
Large number of protesters outside Campsfield House 
The Sea Green Singers lead a song of solidarity and resistance at the protest outside Campsfield House 
Emma Jones compéres the protest outside Campsfield House 
Bill MacKeith addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
Helen from the No To Hassockfield Campaign addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
Hari Reed, co-director of Asylum Welcome, Oxford’s refugee support charity, addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
A speaker from Oxford STAR addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
R, an Oxford resident, addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
Mike Rowley, Oxford Labour City Councillor, addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
Ian Middleton, Kidlington West Green Party Councillor, addresses protesters outside Campsfield House 
Bill MacKeith reads a supportive message from Calum Miller Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester & Woodstock constituency, to protesters outside Campsfield House 
An Oxford student performs a poem of solidarity for protesters outside Campsfield House
18 October, 2025, 11:00am-3:00pm
Public Meeting for the National Day of Solidarity to End Immigration Detention
Fusion Arts Centre, 15 Park End St, Oxford OX1 1HH
NO TO IMMIGRATION DETENTION
“While I was at Campsfield I saw many people struggle to cope with depression and a system designed to break people down. You are treated as if you are a risk to society when all you are trying to do is reach safety and build a life.”
Starmer’s Labour government dropped the Conservative’s Rwanda deportation flights plan, but they decided to proceed with the reopening of Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre (closed in 2018).
This is despite every single relevant elected body in the county – Parish, County, Cherwell District & Oxford City Councils – plus local MP Calum Miller, all resolved to oppose the reopening.
The government has spent millions refurbishing’ Campsfield, contracted with private firm MITIE to run it with 140 beds, later more than doubling in capacity, and says it will reopen by the end of 2025. They plan for up to 400 people at a time to be imprisoned in our community without trial, without time limit, and without proper judicial oversight.
More detention means more years of danger, misery and harm for detainees. Mistreatment of vulnerable people, including survivors of torture and trafficking, is deeply ingrained in the system. Immigration detention is not the answer to the arrival of people in the UK, regardless of how they get here. Alternatives do exist! Stand up for human rights and join the fight to ensure that Campsfield remains closed.
Coalition to Close Campsfield 