Campaigners calling for the closure of Campsfield Immigration Detention Centre say 30 asylum seekers from warn-torn Kosovo are being held inside.

A small group of protesters staged a demonstration outside Carfax Tower, in Oxford, last night to raise awareness of the plight of refugees at the centre, near Kidlington.

They claim that 30 of the 170 refugees being held at Campsfield are ethnic Albanians who arrived in Britain from the breakaway Yugoslavian province in the past few months.

Bill MacKeith, of The Campaign to Close Campsfield, said: "These men, just like all detainees at Campsfied, are held without proper reason and for an indefinite period. Like the vast majority of immigration prisoners, they are claiming political asylum, which is their legal right."

He added: "Research has found that detention leads to depression and suicidal feelings. These people are arriving from a war torn country and all we do is lock them up."

The detainees are thought to be among more than 200 refugees, claiming to be from Kosova, who have been found at ports or hiding in the back of lorries over the past few months.

Most Kosovan refugees have not been detained by the Government. Mr MacKeith said he believes the 30 men at Campsfield are being held because the Home Office suspects they are not Kosovan.

He said: "They are detained on the basis that they are not Kosovans but possibly Albanian nationals. We think they are Kosovans."

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