Campsfield IRC Has Reopened. Here’s How You Can Stand With People Inside

We are working with Asylum Welcome to make sure people held in Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) can access support from independent visitors in the local community.

Below is a short update on the centre’s reopening — why visiting matters — and ways to get involved in solidarity with people inside.

Campsfield House IRC has reopened: background and history

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Campsfield House IRC reopened on 3rd December 2025 in Kidlington, around six miles north of Oxford, with 160 bed spaces and plans to expand to up to 400 in it's second phase.

This is the first immigration detention centre to open since Derwentside IRC in 2021. It signals a wider direction of travel: detention expansion and normalisation, alongside tougher enforcement policies — despite years of local opposition from residents, MPs, parishes, and organisations across Oxfordshire, including Oxford City Council.

Campsfield House IRC previously operated as a youth detention centre. Like many other sites, it was repurposed into an immigration removal centre in 1993.

It remained open until 2018, when it closed after years of public concern about conditions, alongside repeated protests and resistance. In 2010, almost half of those detained in Campsfield went on hunger strike, refusing food indefinitely “for our voices to be heard”.

After four years of closure, the Home Office announced plans in 2022 to reopen Campsfield House IRC and Haslar IRC (closed 2015) with a combined additional 1,000 detention spaces. That represents a major capacity increase across the UK detention estate. These plans were originally linked to the intention to deport people seeking safety to Rwanda. Even after the Rwanda scheme was dropped, the government remained committed to reopening Campsfield House IRC and Haslar IRC— alongside a renewed push to increase enforced removals - reflecting a concerning trend of more people being detained across the UK and Northern Ireland.

• You can also read our joint letter opposing the reopening of Haslar IRC and Campsfield IRC.

Why visiting matters (and who is most affected)

Campsfield House IRC has re-opened with 160 bed spaces – which means up to 160 people who will be isolated from their families and community without any notice or knowledge of when they will be released.

People detained there will include survivors of trafficking, people with serious mental and physical health needs, LGBTQ+ people, people with insecure housing, people facing racism and discrimination, and people who have already experienced violence — including from the state. Detention can amplify existing harm, especially when someone has no trusted support on the outside.

Asylum Welcome — an AVID member organisation — has supported migrant communities for almost 30 years. Their work grew from local solidarity with people detained in Campsfield House IRC when it first opened in 1993. Solidarity with people detained is at the heart of their work, and since its closure they have continued to support people held under immigration powers in HMP Huntercombe (foreign nationals only prison).

The physical and mental harm caused by immigration detention is well documented. As one former Asylum Welcome visitor recalled:

“I remember one Somali man… he started talking about his story and he just cried and cried… Sometimes it is difficult to hear the unbelievable misery that people have experienced… and you really hear a lot of that at Campsfield.”

Charlotta, previous visitor with Asylum Welcome, Hidden Stories (2015)

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People who have been detained often speak about how the environment can cause fear, distress, helplessness and uncertainty. And many of the risks that shaped Campsfield House’s history haven’t disappeared. As detention and deportation practices intensify, AVID member groups are already witnessing worrying patterns  — including hunger strikes, safeguarding concerns, and heightened risks of harm.

In this context, visitors can be a lifeline: someone outside the system who can listen, stand in solidarity, and remind someone they haven’t been abandoned.

“Having someone to visit me every week... I feel happy. You know when you’re so lonely, you know you don’t have a mother, a father, no sister, no friend at all and someone walks into your door and is like, ‘I’ve come to see you’, how would you feel? Seriously. I was screaming, the first day I screamed...because she brought me creams, body creams, she brought me a shower gel. And I felt like ok, I’ve not only got a friend, I think I’ve got someone, I’ve got a shoulder to cry on. It’s a good feeling to know that someone cares even if they don’t know you but you know someone cares unconditionally. That’s the most important part, someone cares about you unconditionally”

Ruth, detained in 2009 at Yarl’s Wood IRC.

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People are often detained far from where they live, or immediately upon arrival in the UK, meaning many have no one who can visit. Visitors become a crucial link to the outside world.

“Thank you for being there for me at a time when it felt like the whole world had forgotten me.”

Person previously detained in Campsfield House IRC, visited by Asylum Welcome

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Visitors offer support through listening and friendship — and they can also help people connect to practical help, including legal advice and access to health, housing and community services.

“It is our vision at AVID that everyone in detention has access to a visitor — both to alleviate isolation and to build a wider community offering solidarity, challenging detention’s deliberate separation and division. As a longstanding member of the AVID community, we are committed to working with Asylum Welcome so that — for as long as Campsfield House IRC is open — people detained there are connected with visitors. Having someone to talk to through what can be an extremely distressing time cannot be underestimated.”

‍Miranda Reilly, Co-Director at AVID

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How you can help

Asylum Welcome will be running a pilot visiting service at Campsfield IRC from January 2026. As the centre has only recently reopened, the needs inside — and the level of support required — will evolve over time.

There are meaningful ways to get involved now, while making sure support grows in step with what people in detention actually need.

• ‍Support the visiting service financially: Asylum Welcome has launched a donations appeal to help sustain the visiting service beyond its initial pilot phase. Donations make it possible to cover volunteer coordination, training, travel costs, and essential items requested by people in detention. This support is crucial to ensuring the service is stable, responsive, and long-term.‍
• Register interest in visiting: While there has already been strong interest from the local community, visiting programmes rely on consistency rather than one-off offers of help. By registering your interest, you help Asylum Welcome build a pool of committed visitors who can be brought in as capacity, safeguarding processes, and needs inside the centre develop. For more information on where to visit and how to get involved, please contact us at enquiries@aviddetention.org.uk or see the nearest visitor group in our interactive map.

• Stay connected and share the call: You can also help by sharing information about Campsfield House's reopening and the visiting service within your networks. Raising awareness — especially locally — helps ensure people in detention are not isolated or forgotten as the centre becomes normalised.

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