Ex-inmate hits out over Campsfield - 'a soft Guantanamo'
By Phil Vinter | 17.03.2007 17:52
Oxford Mail Saturday 17th March 2007
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A former Campsfield House detainee said he was treated so badly when he was in the Kidlington detention centre he wanted to return to war torn Algeria.
The former Algerian policeman, who has asked to be known only as Karim, was detained at Campsfield House for nine months after fleeing his home country when he suffered shrapnel injuries from a bomb.
Yesterday he painted a picture of a repressive, disrespectful regime at the time he was detained at the centre, then run by Group 4 security.
The centre is now run by American company GEO group, which also operates the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.
Karim said he was not surprised that detainees had run riot and started a fire at the centre on Wednesday morning and he believes Campsfield House should be closed down.
Now a British citizen, Karim says the way he was treated was so bad that he had been on anti-depressants ever since.
He described the regime as 'a soft Guantanamo'.
Karim, who was detained between 1996 and 1997, said: "Campsfield is worse than what I experienced in Algeria and I was treated so badly I wished I had never come to England. I wanted to go home.
"At least I had freedom in Algeria.
"At Campsfield, phone calls came in at all hours of the day so you could never get any sleep.
"On one occasion, detainees went on strike and refused to go back to their rooms because a security guard walked into the prayer room wearing his shoes which, to a Muslim, is the equivalent of urinating in a church.
"I am not saying all the security staff were bad, some were good, but the majority were bad when I was there.
"I was not at all surprised by what happened.
"People are incarcerated against their will for doing nothing wrong and frustrations build up."
It has been alleged that the person who started the incident was from Algeria, although GEO Group has refused to confirm that.
Karim said he had left Algeria in fear of his life after suffering shrapnel injuries to his arm after he went to help a small girl after a bomb went off.
The incident, which happened during the Algerian Civil War which lasted from 1991 until 2002, has left him with a permanent disability.
The former Algerian policeman, who has asked to be known only as Karim, was detained at Campsfield House for nine months after fleeing his home country when he suffered shrapnel injuries from a bomb.
Yesterday he painted a picture of a repressive, disrespectful regime at the time he was detained at the centre, then run by Group 4 security.
The centre is now run by American company GEO group, which also operates the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.
Karim said he was not surprised that detainees had run riot and started a fire at the centre on Wednesday morning and he believes Campsfield House should be closed down.
Now a British citizen, Karim says the way he was treated was so bad that he had been on anti-depressants ever since.
He described the regime as 'a soft Guantanamo'.
Karim, who was detained between 1996 and 1997, said: "Campsfield is worse than what I experienced in Algeria and I was treated so badly I wished I had never come to England. I wanted to go home.
"At least I had freedom in Algeria.
"At Campsfield, phone calls came in at all hours of the day so you could never get any sleep.
"On one occasion, detainees went on strike and refused to go back to their rooms because a security guard walked into the prayer room wearing his shoes which, to a Muslim, is the equivalent of urinating in a church.
"I am not saying all the security staff were bad, some were good, but the majority were bad when I was there.
"I was not at all surprised by what happened.
"People are incarcerated against their will for doing nothing wrong and frustrations build up."
It has been alleged that the person who started the incident was from Algeria, although GEO Group has refused to confirm that.
Karim said he had left Algeria in fear of his life after suffering shrapnel injuries to his arm after he went to help a small girl after a bomb went off.
The incident, which happened during the Algerian Civil War which lasted from 1991 until 2002, has left him with a permanent disability.
By Phil Vinter
