CAMPAIGN groups are preparing to fight plans for an immigration detention centre near Bicester after the scheme was unveiled.
Detailed plans for the 800-bed secure immigration detention and removals centre, to be built on former MoD land near Arncott, were put on public display in Arncott Village Hall last Friday and Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) said around 170 people attended the exhibition over two days, including people from surrounding villages such as Piddington and Blackthorn, as well as Bicester and Oxford.
She said visitors had asked questions about transport plans, lighting, security and other issues concerning the proposed UKBA Bullingdon Immigration Removal Centre.
She also said the new centre would create almost 500 jobs and would be designed and secured to the standards of a Category C prison.
The UKBA says creating an immigration removals centre at Arncott is a critical part of plans to increase the rate of removal of failed asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, and others who have broken the rules.
But the proposal has drawn an angry response from asylum charities and local supporters, who have formed a new campaign group.
The Coalition Against Bullingdon Immigration Removal Centre (CABIRC) says the centre is not needed as figures show that the number of asylum seekers arriving in Britain has declined over the last five years.
CABIRC also says the new centre will be enormously expensive to run and would be inhumane, leading to high rates of depression and self-harm.
A spokesman for Oxford charity Asylum Welcome, part of CABIRC, said: "The indefinite detention of anyone, whether asylum seeker or foreign national, is inhumane.
"The Government must find other ways of dealing with people whose immigration status is unclear."
Controversial plans to create a 750-bed open-doors accommodation centre on the site were scrapped several years ago.
A planning application is due to be submitted to Cherwell District Council later this year, and work could begin in 2009 if permission is granted. The centre is expected to open in 2012.
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