A Home Office plan to build asylum seeker detention facilities next to a sewage pump is facing objections after water company officials warned that detainees should expect to experience insect swarms and strong smells.
Proposed secure accommodation blocks at Campsfield House immigration removal centre in Oxfordshire will be 20 metres from a sewage pumping station, according to a written submission from Thames Water.
A senior development manager at the company wrote that it could give rise to “amenity effects, including odour, noise, vibration, lighting associated with maintenance activities, insects and flies” for any inhabitants. In a previous submission, the company wrote that any development may lead to sewage flooding.
The warnings, which come as the government hopes to expand the immigration detention estate by 40%, have been seized upon by campaigners against the expansion.
Ally Swadling, the lead legal education officer at the charity Right to Remain, said: “Thames Water’s concerns about sewage infrastructure at Campsfield show how little regard is being given to even the most basic standards of sanitation and human dignity.
“They reinforce what we already know – this government is putting its political priorities above people’s lives and wellbeing.”
The centre near Kidlington re-opened in December 2025 after it was shut in 2018 following years of problems, including suicides, riots, escapes and complaints about conditions.
The Home Office is planning to increase the centre’s capacity from 160 bed spaces to 400, and to convert existing buildings. According to the Thames Water submission in October, officials also “raised concerns regarding capacity within the foul water, surface water and water supply networks” in the local area.
A separate 2015 written consultation response, which was submitted in June, states the development may lead to sewage flooding in the area.
“Thames Water request that an impact study be undertaken to ascertain, with a greater degree of certainty, whether the proposed development will lead to overloading of existing infrastructure,” it said.
Written representations, including that of Thames Water, will be heard at a public inquiry beginning on 14 December.
Oxfordshire county council has formally objected to the expansion of Campsfield House, saying it risks intensifying existing public concern, and called for the site to be shut permanently.
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According to the Home Office, nearly 80,000 people have been returned or deported from the UK since the 2024 election to the end of June 2026, an increase of 52% on the previous two years.
Imran Hussain, the director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Detention is a harmful, dehumanising experience that must only be used as a last resort. Evidence shows it’s ineffective, expensive and damages people forced to endure it.
“Instead of expanding sites such as Campsfield House immigration removal centre, and in this case, in a way that could potentially be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of people staying there, the government must instead use community-based alternatives detention, which have proven to be effective and much cheaper.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We are confident in our plans for Campsfield immigration removal centre and will continue to engage constructively with the Planning Inspectorate as the process moves forward. We are committed to increasing the removal of those with no right to remain in the UK. Expanding our detention capacity plays an important role in achieving this.”
Thames Water said they had nothing to add to their response.
