CAMPAIGNERS called for a controversial immigration detention centre to close during the first protest since riots broke out last month.

Protesters demonstrated outside Campsfield House in Langford Lane, Kidlington, on Saturday.

The 15-strong crowd held banners, chanted and sang during the protest.

Members of the Campaign to Close Campsfield were joined by a former Nigerian detainee to protest against the facility.

Campaigner Teresa Hayter, from St Clement's, Oxford, said: "These people are locked up without any sort of judicial process and most of the time they put up with it, but just occasionally they are provoked."

Riot police battled to restore order at the detention centre after a fire broke out inside on March 14.

The blaze was thought to have been sparked after staff tried to remove an Algerian detainee due to be deported.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were called and seven members of staff and two detainees were taken to hospital.

The centre, which opened in 1993, is run by Reading-based company GEO-UK, which took over from Global Solutions in May 2006.