On 4 August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield immigration prison in Oxfordshire following the latest in a long line of protests. A few days earlier, 160 detainees held a yard demonstration to protest against the appalling conditions in the detention centre. A planned hunger strike was then suspended for a meeting with Home Office representatives; however the meeting failed to satisfy the prisoners’ concerns and on Friday 3 August there was a further yard demonstration.
According to the Close Campsfield Campaign, the protest on 4 August started with a fire in a portacabin, which was used as a kitchen. Detainees were evacuated into the yard at about 10.30am due to the risk of gas bottles stored nearby exploding. By 10.45 some detainees had started smashing through the back gate and 26 people had managed to break out and escape. Police in riot gear were brought in and a helicopter, police dogs and a large number of police officers were drafted in to track down the escapees. Twelve were caught more or less straight away and three more within a few days; however, the remainder have managed to evade recapture.
Campsfield, formerly a Young Offenders Institute, was converted into an immigration prison in 1993. Operated by GEO, a private US company specialising in detention facilities, it has been constantly criticised for its appalling conditions. A statement issued by the prisoners on 31 July said ‘Living conditions for detainees are appalling. Campsfield is a health hazard with 70% infection with flu. Paracetamol is the only medicine made available; two weeks ago even this ran out. Campsfield [is] rife with scabies, but only staff [are] issued with gloves.’
Despite longstanding criticism of the appalling conditions from asylum seekers’ support and human rights organisations, Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, was entirely unsympathetic, saying ‘If they don’t like being in detention centres I just invite them to help us get them their documents so they can go home’. This statement reflects the Labour government’s attitude towards asylum seekers, with many not in detention forced to choose between ‘voluntary return’ or destitution.
The police and government were also quick to smear the escapees and make them sound like dangerous criminals on the run, emphasising that all those still at large had been convicted of criminal offences, served prison sentences and were now awaiting deportation. However, with an ever-increasing number of criminal offences being created for overstaying, using false documents or working without a permit, asylum seekers and refugees are easily branded as ‘criminals’ for merely trying to survive and seeking safety from persecution, torture, genocide, warfare or poverty.
FRFI stands in solidarity with the Campsfield detainees and all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers fighting back against Labour’s racist and inhumane treatment of the vulnerable and oppressed.
Alyse Thompson
FRFI 199 October / November 2007
