More than 300 people packed into Oxford Town Hall to highlight what they said was Britain's inadequate response to the global refugee crisis.

Oxford-based organisations Asylum Welcome and Student Action on Refugees organised Monday's meeting.

It was just one of a series of events in Oxford to mark Refugee Week, which culminates on Sunday with the Oxford Mela - a diverse sports, music and dance festival at Cowley Marsh.

One of the event organisers Nikki van der Gaag said: "The panel spoke movingly of their experiences as refugees and journalists and the audience responded with many questions from the floor.

"There was outrage that such things could happen here, in a country that is supposed to stand for fairness and justice."

Margery, a refugee from Uganda, said: "You come here escaping torture and you end up being tortured diplomatically.

"We don't want a cold shoulder, we want a loving shoulder. We don't want food, we want under- standing.

"What if one day the tables were turned - would you want to be called bogus?"

Matt Holman, director of Asylum Welcome, said: "It was an informative and moving event. "Marjorie's story brought a hush to the room. It's a great credit to all the speakers they kept a room engaged in a debate about the asylum system for three hours."

Keynote speaker at the event was Tariq Ali, the writer, journalist and film maker and other speakers included writer Melissa Benn, journalist Melanie McFadyean and former refugee Innocent Empi.

The event was opened by Hasan Bamyani, a local refugee originally from Afghanistan, reading a poem from his new book of poetry Lyla and Majnon.

Mr Empi spoke of his own experience of fleeing homophobic and political persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

During the week, other events included a performance of Asylum Monologues, which included first hand accounts of the UK's asylum system, and a screening of The Art of Flight, a documentary shot on camcorders in Egypt documenting the plight of Sudanese refugees trying to leave.

Today a refugee week jamboree will be held at St Mary Magdalen Church, St Giles, featuring music, arts, crafts, cakes and face painting.

For more details visit asylum-welcome.org