• the Government's plans to build a 750 place accommodation centre for men, women and children seeking political asylum in the UK, on Ministry of Defence land at Piddington, outside Bicester, Oxfordshire
• that such large centres, in isolated areas on military land - in this case within earshot of shooting practice - will effectively be detention centres or open prisons, and are opposed by refugee organisations, the Refugee Council, the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, Oxfam, trade unions including the TGWU and locally by Bicester Refugee Support, Oxford and District Trades Union Council and community and church leaders in Bicester
• that such opposition is based on the needs of people seeking asylum, which include being close to, not isolated from, local people, from population centres where there may be fellow nationals and from sources of support such as legal representatives; and further that children in families seeking asylum should not be educated separately from other school children.
• that Bicester Refugee Support is campaigning and making representations in opposition to the planned centre and at the same time promoting the positive contribution of refuges to this country and aiming t help dispel the climate of hostility and fear towards refugees that has been generated in the Bicester area.

This (Branch) resolves

• to affiliate to Bicester Refugee Support (affiliation fee £20; PO Box 231, Bicester, Oxon OX26 6ZN), which includes the right to attend the regular planning meetings and events organised by BRS
• to invite a BRS speaker to its next meeting (depends on availability).