1994: Asylum seekers flee detention centre

Six asylum seekers have escaped from an immigration centre in Oxfordshire following a rooftop protest overnight.

Three other detainees from the Campsfield centre in Kidlington were taken to hospital with ankle injuries after trying to escape.

An investigation is underway, although the incident is believed to be connected to the removal of an Algerian detainee who was due to be deported after being refused asylum in Britain.

According to his legal advisers he was removed with undue haste.

Adviser Sue Conlan said: "It has happened time and time again and people are just scared and also frustrated and fed up that they are being treated in a way that just means they are less than human. They are being treated like animals".

Campsfield House, run by private security firm Group 4, was opened six months ago, holding about 200 people.

The centre detains those who are waiting for their asylum applications to be processed as well as those waiting for deportation.

Although the disturbances overnight were short-lived, questions are being raised about the government's policy of locking up people who have committed no crime.

It is also under fire over attempts to speed up the asylum application process in the face of increasing numbers of people seeking refuge in the UK.

Claude Moraes, of the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants, accused the government of abusing Immigration Act powers.

He said: "We have hundreds of people now, either in prisons, detention centres or police cells who are there without any reason, any charge or conviction".

The Home Office responded that only 1.5% of the 47,000 people currently seeking asylum were detained.

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