A former detainee at Campsfield House detention centre has joined protesters demanding the facility should close.

At a demonstration outside the centre, in Langford Lane, Kidlington, on Saturday, campaigners held signs, chanted and sang in the first protest since rioting and fires broke out there on March 14.

Nigerian immigrant Anthony Aghayere, who spent four months in Campsfield House last year, was among the protesters gathered outside the gate.

He told the Oxford Mail: "It was horrible at Campsfield."

Mr Aghayere said he came to the UK in January 1996 after his father was murdered for supporting political activists.

He said he was tortured for two weeks in Nigeria before escaping from custody, and was on hunger strike for eight days while at Campsfield House.

He said: "There was a lot of racism.

"Some rooms had six people in them, so you got fights because of religion and culture clashes.

"I had problems with my wisdom teeth when I was there and when I went to the dentist I was handcuffed - even when I was in the dentist's chair. I was treated like a criminal.

"I don't think there's a need for places like this at all and, if they have to exist, staff need better training."

Teresa Hayter, of the Close Down Campsfield campaign, said: "We have a friend who ran art classes under previous managers.

"She came back recently, thinking she might be able to work here again and she was horrified by what she saw, so much so that she thought it was impossible to work there."

Ms Hayter, from St Clement's, Oxford, has written a book about immigration - called Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Control.

She said an art room had been filled with games consoles which were among the items damaged in the disturbance last month.

She said: "It shows such disrespect and a failure to understand the needs of intelligent people.

"These people are locked up without any sort of judicial process and most of the time they put up with it - but just occasionally they're provoked which, is what happened on March 14."

Protester Martha Young, who lives in Radley, has been involved in the Close Down Campsfield campaign for two-and-a-half years.

She said: "It just surprises me there's not more trouble in a place like this.

"It's surrounded by fields, which could be football pitches where people could let off steam.

"We've got mostly young men locked up there, and they don't know what's going to happen to them, so it's understandable that people are frightened and frustrated."

The centre is run by the Reading-based company GEO-UK, which took over management of the centre in May 2006.

Managing director Walter Macgowan was yesterday unavailable for comment.