Open%20borders%20The%20case%20against%20immigration%20controls%20-%20Teresa%20Hayter

128 Open Borders
observers, who counted their occupants as they left, failed to discover what
had happened to them. One of the Algerians on the roof was seen jumping,
head first, off it. The Home Office admitted only five serious injuries. Twentytwo
detainees were taken to Oxford police station and then dispersed to
various prisons. One of the few recommendations of the Tumim inspection
report that has been implemented is that some of the Group 4 guards who
run Campsfield have since been equipped with riot gear and trained to use it.
In May 1997, when the Algerian falsely accused of sexual harassment
(see above) was removed to Winson Green prison, his friends, after spending
the morning ‘talking and talking’, decided to climb onto a roof to protest and
demand his return. They were joined by four others, demanding their own
freedom. They stayed on the roof all night and most of the next day, with a
little food and some blankets passed to them by detainees below. About 100
other detainees, refusing to be locked into their rooms, broke out into a
courtyard and were eventually locked into another wing. Extra Group 4
guards were bussed into Campsfield in riot gear. An offer to mediate by Evan
Harris MP was turned down. Eventually the rooftop protesters were forced
down by the cold and the rain. They were eventually transferred to Winson
Green, Rochester and Tinsley.
On August 20 1997 there was another mass protest, triggered by the early
morning removal of two West African detainees. One of them was ill, resisted
and woke everybody with his cries of pain. The detainees who saw his
removal thought he was being strangled, and demanded to know why the
two were being removed. Eventually nearly all of the detainees were outside
in the courtyard protesting and displaying placards saying they were not
criminals. Group 4 donned their riot gear, numerous police and extra guards
were brought in, and, so the government claimed, £100,000 of material
damage was caused by detainees. The next day Mike O’Brien, Home Office
immigration minister, issued an inflammatory press statement headed
‘BURNING BOOKS – IN A MOMENT OF MADNESS’, ignoring the fact that
library facilities were burned by one individual who was never identified by
the authorities. ‘The detainees’, he said, ‘destroyed their own facilities. ... The
disturbance was firmly quelled and the police are now investigating whether
to bring criminal charges against certain individuals.’
The government was clearly anxious for exemplary punishment, hoping
this would deter future protests. Thirteen people were arrested. In the event,
none of them was charged with starting a fire, although they were associated
in the minds of many people with images of burnt buildings and smashed
facilities. The charges were for violent disorder; they were later upped to riot,
which carries a maximum sentence of ten years. Two lawyers told a meeting
in Oxford, called to organise a Campsfield Nine Defence Campaign, that an
officer at Banbury police station where police were taking statements said to
them ‘the charges were going nowhere’ until they received a phone call from
Jack Straw. Charges against three Caribbeans and one Lebanese boy were
later dropped without explanation. The remaining nine were all West