CAMPAIGNERS against a controversial immigrant detention centre near Kidlington have welcomed news of its closures next year.

Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre near Kidlington will shut in May 2019 when the current contract period expires, according to a government announcement on Friday.

However, members of the Campaign to Close Campsfield and End All Immigration Detention group said they will continue opposing such centre's until they are all closed for good.

Bill MacKeith, joint organiser: of the group said: "The announcement that Campsfield is to close is long overdue.

"We think soberly of all the harm done, the lives damaged or destroyed."

He added: "But the misery and injustice of immigration detention continues at Yarl’s Wood, Colnbrook and Harmondsworth, Brook and Tinsley, Morton Hall, and Dungavel. These too have to go. We shall work for that."

The 216-bed facility is a long-term detention centre where detainees are kept until their case is resolved and they are removed from the country.

The campaign group will be holding a talk at Oxford Town Hall on November 22 and a demonstration at the Campsfield site on November 24 to highlight their ongoing battle.