Company awarded £70m contract to revamp detention centre

A company has been awarded a £70m contract to revamp an immigration removal centre that shut in 2018.

Campsfield House in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, closed after years of problems, including riots, escapes and complaints about conditions.

But the Home Office announced in 2022 it planned to reuse the facility, to the anger of some residents, politicians and charities.

Galliford Try confirmed it had won the contract to complete the necessary work.

Plans published last year showed the facility could house a maximum of 400 detainees, who would be "foreign nationals liable for removal from the UK".

That total is more than double Campsfield House's previous capacity of 160.

It is thought about 220 staff would be employed to work at the facility when it reopens.

Charity Asylum Welcome said it "fundamentally" objects to the centre's reopening.

In February, its director Mark Goldring said the planned reopening was "a massively backward step".

"We can only hope conditions are better than they were last time Campsfield was open when many people suffered from mental health stress trauma," he said.

The Home Office was contacted to comment.

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