THE REALITY facing asylum. seekers - even before the draconian measures in the new legislation come into force -has been highlighted yet again by detainees at Campsfield detention centre, Oxfordshire.
Protests by those held at the centre have been a regular feature of campaigning against immigration detentions over the last several years and have also found echoes in other centres such as Rochester.
While the early protests did receive a fair amount of national media coverage this has become harder to obtain since Labour's election victory. Refugees in Kosova are news - those imprisoned by Labour's immigration regime are not.
Detainees at Campsfield staged an eight-day hunger strike against the Asylum Bill which ended on June 15.
ThE CHARCIS The largest group of strikers were Algerian, while most of the rest were from Eastern Europe. There were three suicide attempts during the protest - one by hanging and two by the cutting of wrists -a graphic illustration of the desperation of those imprisoned for the "crime" of seeking refuge in this supposedly civilised society.
"We are not criminals - we are the victims! Why are we treated like animals?" asks an appeal signed by 18 detainees.
One of the last hunger strikers, a Pole, was deported as the hunger strike came to an end. There was better news when two Eastern European refugees managed to escape the Group Four-run camp.
This was welcomed at June's monthly demonstration by supporters of the detainees which assembles outside the jail. Protesters also saluted the hunger strikers.
GOATING 9MMAT An earlier protest by Campsfield detainees led to a frame-up trial in Oxford