Protesters are opposed to a planned 420 bed detention centre

More than a hundred people took to the streets of Crawley, Sussex, on Saturday to call for an end to the holding of asylum seekers in secure units.

Tinsley House, which is situated at Gatwick, currently holds 135 people. The Home Office plan to open a new 420 bed detention centre nearby in 2008.

A spokeswoman said detention was part of a fair approach towards asylum.

Demonstrators, waving banners with slogans calling for all immigrants to be freed from secure units, stopped traffic in Crawley during their march.

'Complex and emotive'

George Mwangi from Kenya, who was held in a detention centre for eight months, addressed people during the protest.

He said: "During my time in detention it made me feel hopeless.

"I was traumatised because, here I am having fled from a very bad situation, coming to seek asylum and asking just to be given protection, I was being put in detention."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said detention was part of a fair and robust approach towards asylum.

She said the Home Office accepted that immigration was a complex and emotive subject and people had the right to protest but believed detention was an essential element of enforced removal.

Removal centres

A planning application was submitted to Crawley Borough Council for a three-storey building to be built around 200m (220yds) from the runway last year.

The unit would be surrounded by a 5.2m (17ft) security fence. A visitor centre and a gatehouse were also planned.