HUNDREDS of campaigners have joined a protest outside a detention centre calling for it to be shut down.

Pressure group We Will Rise organised the protest and members branded Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre "racist and inhumane".

Protesters, including former detainees, asylum seekers and refugees, surrounded the centre near Strathaven in South Lanarkshire on Saturday, chanting "shut down Dungavel" and holding banners reading "no one is illegal".

Glasgow Times:

Photo and video by Gordon Terris

One-time Dungavel detainee, Sally Martinez, told the crowd: "We believe we can end detention in Scotland. To see so many people here is really inspiring. The costs of detention are too great - it has a human cost, a financial cost and a moral cost. Dungavel's time is up."

Sonny Adisa, also a former detained person, added: "Not only is the system racist and inhumane, but it's illogical too. Scotland needs immigration, yet it's spending public money on locking people up that could contribute to society."

Dungavel House, which opened in 2001, holds up to 249 detainees and is the only such centre in Scotland.

It is operated under contract to the Home Office by GEO Group Ltd.

The protest was part of a Europe-wide day of action against detention centres.