Most will have seen the pictures of Harmondsworth Removal Centre on television of the papers yesterday and today. Detainees placing sheets on the ground in courtyards spelling out their appeal for "Help."
Harmondsworth is in my constituency. Next to it is also the large scale Colnbrook Detention Centre. I deal with two to three deportation cases a week from the centres and at times a case every day or more. People often in the most desperate circumstances. They are not criminals but generally people who have come to the end of their asylum claims process and the Government has designated them for removal from the country. If allowed to remain my experience is that most would contribute to our society as any other citizen.
The decision by the Home Office to detain them is often a complete mystery to many of us who deal with these cases. Once they get detained they become trapped in what can be an incomprehensible, often demeaning and sometimes brutal bureaucratic system.
On Tuesday Anne Owers, Her Majesy's Inspector of Prisons, published a devastating report describing the dreadful and at times inhumane conditions detainees were experiencing at the hands of the private company running the Harmondsworth centre.
Her report found that 60% of detainees reported that they felt unsafe in the centre. As the report states "More worrying the main fear was of bullying by staff. 44% said they had been victimised by staff." The Inspectorate found an "over-emphasis on physical security which was more appropriate to a high security prison than a removal centre"
This not the first disturbance at Harmondsworth. In 2004 there was a riot and fires after a detainee committed suicide. From the Owers' report it looks as though few lessons have been learnt from that incident.
I wrote yesterday immediately to the Home Secretary and spoke to Minister of State at the Home Office explaining of course my worries for the safety of both detainees and staff but making it clear that in the first instance the centre should no longer be run by a private company and should be returned to the direct management of the Home Office. If people want to understand the implications of privatisation and putting profit before people, look no further than Harmondsworth.
The riot throws up wider questions though than just the management of one centre. We need an urgent review of the whole policy of mass detention of asylum seekers being pursued by the Government. Everybody understands that a Government has a duty to detain criminals but we were assured that these centres were not constructed to house criminals and that the detainees are not criminals.
The scale of detention taking place and the harsh and at times inhuman treatment being meted out to detainees reflects the fact that Government policy appears to be based more upon responding to the xenophobic attacks on all migrants by the Daily Mail than a rational approach to upholding our international duties to assist and shelter those who come to our shores in need.
14 Comments:
Harmondsworth is truly a tragic situation for all those involved. I have no doubt that the privately contracted staff try to do their best in very difficult circumstances. However, those staff are being hampered by the private contractor that employees them. No longer is their job about the wellbeing of detainees, providing them with essential services, making their inhumane detention as bearable as possible and giving them the support and care they no doubt require. It is now about the essential commodities of money and profit. It is making money out of human suffering in the most despicable way.
This is sadly, just a very obvious example of a private company putting private greed, before public need.
I'm disgusted by the silence in the media concerning the plight of these 'detainees'. I guess immigrants aren't really newsworthy unless they are rioting.
The detention of people who have escaped war, genocide, and various forms of persecution really appalls me. These poor people aren't criminals, but individuals seeking sanctuary. The home office should treat them with dignity and respect.
I completely agree with the above mentioned feelings. It makes me further angry knowing that a lot of these people are from the same places that Blair and his cronies together with the USA have made more dangerous thanks to their obsession with attaining oil and exporting their brand of "democracy".
This really sums up the major problems of New Labour.
First we have the barbaric foreign policy of the UK/US/EU in terms of wars as mentioned above. Then there is the trade policy which condemns many parts of the world to poverty. Then there is the support for brutal and repressive regimes, and our arms exports to them.
Lastly, on the domestic front the privatisation of public services which means no savings to the taxpayers - just public subsidy to shareholders who receive dividends for the profits made on public contracts.
Who benefits from all of this?
The more I learn the less I am tolerant of those who apologise for this Government. We need an urgent change and what John is saying seems reasonable, humane and necessary
I've worked at the previous Harmondsworth (i.e. before the rebuild but after the previoud fire and before the suicide in 2004 and for Immigration at Heathrow. I've read all the internal reports to ensure it never happened again.....
it will or rather it just has
that's why we need the leadership of someone like John McDonnell who will listen to the staff who run the Immigration SERVICE as it should be rather than than the inhumane disgarace that it currently is and ensure that it does not remain like this by rethinking the out of date and rather racist and old colonial/imperialist Immigration policy and law that we currently have which is causing this situation along with the disgarceful privatisation whihc degrades the detainees themselves and only creates Mickey Mouse jobs for the people that have no choice finacially than to work somewhere like this. When I was there and Group 4 were in charge the staff were in fact caring although overworked as they had to do lots of overtime to make the wage up to decent levels but the Home Office'e reports were always critical and said they could do better - at least at that time no riots broke out or suicides were commited, the fact that these hoorific events have come back points to some serious questions being asked of the current Home Office Ministers and indeed the whole of this rotten Cabint we now have.
Thoroughly enjoyed the meeting in Leeds on saturday, John. Really encouraging stuff.
I agrree totally with Hon. John. Majority of so called failed asylum seekers were unable to express themselves because of either language barrier or fear. They come into this country when they have been exhausted of brutal and an imaginary experiences. Sadly, those who listen to them do not belive them. The home Office should give them a piece of mind and treat the like our brothers and sisters. Its not their choice.
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