Press release: International Women’s Day solidarity with Yarl’s Wood hunger strikers

International Women’s Day vigil

5pm Thursday 8 March 2018, Carfax, Oxford

in support of the demands of women on hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood migrant prison Bedfordshire

and the 24-hour solidarity Freedom Fast

On 21 February, more than 120 people detained in Yarl’s Wood engaged in a three-day hunger strike protesting the lack of a time limit for how long people can be detained and the inhumane conditions of the centre itself. On 26 February, they escalated to an all-out strike, releasing a statement saying “we will cease to participate in detention, we will not eat, use their facilities or work for them.”

Anniversary Demonstration – 24 YEARS TOO LONG!

At 12 noon Saturday 25th November  there will be an anniversary demo at Campsfield main gates, Langford Lane OX5 1RE

SPEAKERS:Layla Moran MP (Oxford W), Anneliese Dodds MP (Oxford E), Freed Voices, Movement for Justice, Stansted 15
GUEST APPEARANCES: Robb Johnson**, Neo (homelessness campaigner and singer-songwriter)

Bike ride to Campsfield: meet 10.30 Martyrs’ Memorial, Oxford

2.30-4.30 Barbed Wire Britain meetup: briefings, plan future action, refreshments, food; Exeter Hall, Kidlington, OX5 1AB

November 1993, 2 white vans brought the first detainees to the new Campsfield detention prison from Harmondsworth near Heathrow. Since then over 30,000 people have been locked up here without time limit, without charge or proper legal representation in a place run for profit (currently by MITIE). And detainees and their supporters have insisted, month by month, year by year, that it be closed, along withFl all other detention centres.

Close Campsfield, end all immigration detention!
For freedom of movement and the right to stay !
Stop deportations !
Unite the families !

CCC 24 flyer

** Robb Johnson is also playing a gig on Friday 24 November, 7.30pm
St Aldates Tavern, email pete.cann@hotmail.co.uk to book

Refugee Week Film Show – Tuesday 20 June

 

 

 

 Refugee Week in Oxford 2017 

Film show

‘Campsfield House: An Immigration Removal Centre’
and ‘Working Illegally’

 7.30 Tuesday 20 June

Town Hall, Council Chamber, St Aldates, Oxford

Two films from Stand Off Films about immigration detention in the UK, specifically about Campsfield detention centre near Oxford, and the use of ‘slave labour’ by private companies running immigration detention centres, a practice under legal attack in the United States at the present time. 

Followed by discussion, points for action

Free entry – stalls

Organised by Campaign to Close Campsfield

 

MIGRANT DETENTION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A THRIVING BUSINESS

London Launch of the report Migrant Detention in the European Union: A Thriving Business.  Outsourcing and privatisation of migrant detention

Tuesday 28 March, 6pm, PRAXIS, Pott Street, London, E2 0EF

23rd anniversary demo at Campsfield, Saturday 26th November 2016

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At the main gates of Campsfield Detention Centre north of Oxford today, 120 demonstrators called for the closure of all immigrant detention centres. There were groups and speakers from the Campaign to Close Campsfield, Oxford Migrant Solidarity, Movement For Justice, Hackney Migrant Centre, Warwick University Amnesty, Oxford University Amnesty, Oxford City of Sanctuary, Coventry Trades Union Council, and Oxford Trades Union Council. Cyclists arrived on a ‘Close Campsfield’ bike ride from central Oxford. A strongly supportive message from East Oxford MP Andrew Smith was read out.

Demonstrators called out ‘Stop detention, stop deportation, close Campsfield down’. Men detained in the detention centre called back ‘Freedom’ and ’Thank you’. Detainees spoke to the demonstrators by phone, calling a number displayed on a large sheet, and their words amplified to the crowd by the p/a system. Drummers from the Confluence Collective provided a beat.

 The event was organised by the Campaign to Close Campsfield to mark 23 years since the centre opened. It was followed by a ‘Barbed Wire Britain gathering at Exeter Hall, Kidlington, where campaigners heard news from the Calais migrant camp that was recently destroyed by the French government, and discussed plans for further actions.

PRESS RELEASE – Big protest at Campsfield in run-up to 23rd anniversary demonstration on 26 November

On Saturday, people from Oxfordshire and beyond demonstrated outside Campsfield House, an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) 6 miles north of Oxford where around 280 refugees and other migrants are detained.

 Outside the 20-ft barbed wire fences, they chanted hope and solidarity with the migrants.

‘This is being done in our name? But it is like a high security prison!’ said a student who had never seen an IRC before. 

23 YEARS TOO LONG! DEMO 26 NOVEMBER

DEMONSTRATE 12 noon SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER
TO CLOSE CAMPSFIELD
AND END ALL IMMIGRATION DETENTION

Report from visit to Dunkirk camp

Local Oxfordshire campaigner, Evelyne Godfrey, visited the migrant camp at Dunkirk and sent this letter to the Oxford Mail.

There are perhaps a thousand migrants in a camp in Dunkirk at Grande Synthe, at Exit 54a off the A16, about 10 minutes from the ferry port. They are accommodated in plywood ‘sheds’ with corrugated plastic roofs. The Dunkirk camp was originally set up by Médecins Sans Frontières‎. At the moment, Utopia 56 is the main voluntary group for the camp, but they are planning to move out to help at other migrant camps in Calais and Paris by the end of September 2016.

Oxford City Refugee Week: Immigration Detention on Trial

As part of Refugee Week, the Campaign to Close Campsfield is holding a public meeting at Oxford Town Hall on 22 June at 19:00–21:00

Speakers:

Alison Harvey, Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
Speaker with experience of detention, Movement for Justice
Gill Baden, Bail Observation Project
Eiri Ohtani, Detention Forum

The injustices of immigration detention are increasingly in the spotlight.

NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH DETAINED PEOPLE AND PROTEST AGAINST DETENTION CENTRES – SATURDAY 7 MAY

As part of the national day of solidarity with detained people and against detention centres on Saturday 7 May, when campaign groups will demonstrate at detention centres around England and Scotland, there will be an extra demo at Campsfield main gates from 12 noon to 2pm.

How to get there.

See the facebook event