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19/06/2008
Detainees Escape Oxfordshire Detention Centre
Four immigration detainees have escaped an Oxfordshire centre overnight.
Police hunting the fugitives have closed a road leading to Campsfield House in Kidlington and are searching the area.
A Home Office spokesman said that seven detainees had managed to escape but three had been recaptured.
"We are currently working with police to recapture a very small number of detainees.
"This is an ongoing operation so we cannot comment further," he said.
Staff at Campsfield immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire raised the alarm in the early hours of the morning.
Thames Valley Police and Prison Service officers along with officials from GEO, which operates the centre, are hunting for the remaining detainees.
Superintendent Howard Stone of Thames Valley Police said everything is being done "as quickly as possible to locate the remaining detainees".
Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon says that the incident "must tell the Home Office that there is a fundamental problem with the way the centre is run".
It is understood that on Saturday, a team of prison officers in riot gear were summoned to restore order at the centre after a number of fires broke out.
GEO has not commented on the incident.
Campsfield used to be a youth detention centre but it re-opened as an Immigration Detention Centre holding 200 detainees in November 1993.
It is understood that most of the men held are claiming status as political refugees.
The Campaign to Close Campsfield, founded in 1993, is supported by refugee organisation, trades unions, political parties, student organisations and religious groups.
In May, the Government's UK Border Agency announced plans that places in immigration detention centres were to increase by 60%.
(DS)
Police hunting the fugitives have closed a road leading to Campsfield House in Kidlington and are searching the area.
A Home Office spokesman said that seven detainees had managed to escape but three had been recaptured.
"We are currently working with police to recapture a very small number of detainees.
"This is an ongoing operation so we cannot comment further," he said.
Staff at Campsfield immigration detention centre in Oxfordshire raised the alarm in the early hours of the morning.
Thames Valley Police and Prison Service officers along with officials from GEO, which operates the centre, are hunting for the remaining detainees.
Superintendent Howard Stone of Thames Valley Police said everything is being done "as quickly as possible to locate the remaining detainees".
Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon says that the incident "must tell the Home Office that there is a fundamental problem with the way the centre is run".
It is understood that on Saturday, a team of prison officers in riot gear were summoned to restore order at the centre after a number of fires broke out.
GEO has not commented on the incident.
Campsfield used to be a youth detention centre but it re-opened as an Immigration Detention Centre holding 200 detainees in November 1993.
It is understood that most of the men held are claiming status as political refugees.
The Campaign to Close Campsfield, founded in 1993, is supported by refugee organisation, trades unions, political parties, student organisations and religious groups.
In May, the Government's UK Border Agency announced plans that places in immigration detention centres were to increase by 60%.
(DS)
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