17 Hundred Percent Growth in Immigration Detention Since 1997
Categories: Articles:Asylum & Refugees |
Published: 26/08/2014 |
Views: 1708
In 1997 Campsfield IRC the first UK Immigration detention centre opened with 200 places. As of August 2014 the number of places had grown to 3,690 an increase of 17 hundred percent. On the 30th June this year 3,079 of those places were occupied, another 580 places in HMPs were occupied by persons solely detained under immigration rules, bringing the total of immigration detainees to 3,659. As Mitie becomes the Home Office's largest provider of immigration detention this month, merging Colnbrook and Harmondsworth into a super-size 'Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre', Corporate Watch takes a look at the company's track record at Campsfield House, the only detention centre it has run before.
Already Campsfield has been marred by a major fire, suicide and three mass hunger strikes since Mitie took over in 2011. So how has Mitie won this new contract, and will asylum-seekers be any safer in their hands? Mitie, a FTSE 250 outsourcing company, has now started a Home Office contract, worth potentially a quarter of a billion pounds, to detain more asylum-seekers. Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE, chief executive of Mitie, said she was “delighted” to win the contract, and promised: “We will be providing the best environment possible for the people in our care - putting decency, dignity, and safety at the heart of everything we do.” The contract will be run by Mitie's aptly named 'Care and Custody' subsidiary. The company's press release explained that, “Mitie will care for over 900 immigration detainees providing full centre management, including all custody services, welfare, regime and recreational activity. This partnership will see Mitie becoming the largest single private sector provider of immigration detention services to the Home Office, less than three years after entering the market.” Read more:
Corporate Watch 01/09/14
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