Three immigration offenders remain on the run after breaking out of a detention centre.

The security breach on Thursday came as the Home Office launched a new bid to toughen up its enforcement of immigration laws.

The men escaped from Campsfield House centre, near Kidlington, just before 4am, along with four others who were later recaptured.

One was caught cycling away from the scene and a second man sustained ankle injuries after leaping over the perimeter fence.

Another escapee was later found seven miles away at the Oxford University Botanic Garden.

The fiasco overshadowed the Government's launch of a strategy to deal with immigration offenders, including plans on detention and deportation.

It also cast a shadow over a series of raids by police and immigration officers to close down a massive immigration racket focused on bent solicitors and bogus colleges.

There was no information on how the seven detainees managed to break out of the secure facility, run by American company GEO, which holds immigration offenders and failed asylum seekers.

Police said it was a "planned escape" rather than an opportunistic abscondment.

Thames Valley Police named the men who remain at large as Abdesalam Tarik Ben, Abdelhak Morid and Mohammed Aref Hosseini.