On 16 January HM Inspectorate of Prisons released a report from an unannounced visit to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in August 2013. Harmondsworth, near Heathrow Airport, was the first purpose-built immigration detention facility and is the largest in Europe. The Home Office hires private contractor GEO Group UK Ltd to run the immigration centre. The report reveals sustained human rights abuses against detainees and ‘shocking cases where a sense of humanity was lost’. LOUISE GARTREL reports.
Inspectors reported a lack of focus on the needs of the most vulnerable detainees. The sick and elderly received health care provision which was described as ‘unacceptably poor’, and with the change-over in private contracts there was a fear this could further worsen significantly. The Chief Inspector also reported unsatisfactory living conditions, with rooms being overcrowded and much of the centre described as ‘dirty and bleak’. A squalid, prison-like environment was described, with insanitary toilet and shower facilities and barely furnished rooms.
Unsurprisingly, there has been an increase in self-harm incidents, with 38% of detainees stating they had felt depressed and suicidal since arriving at the IRC. In the six months prior to the inspection, nearly 100 detainees had refused food or fluids. The report recognised that the detention centre has failed to provide ‘assurance that the most vulnerable would be protected against the effects of detention’ under Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001. Health care staff were recorded as untrained in torture recognition and failed to complete paperwork which requires the Home Office to be notified if detention is likely to be detrimental to the detainee’s health, including if they have a been a victim of torture.
The report further revealed that there had been several cases of ‘unnecessary and inhumane handcuffing’ during hospital escorts, even when the detainees posed no risk or threat. One particularly disturbing case involved an 84-year-old Canadian man suffering from dementia who died in handcuffs. Alois Dvorzac was declared unfit for detention or deportation by doctors, but was not released and a referral was never made to social services to have his care needs assessed. Two disabled detainees also stated they had been handcuffed during a hospital visit and ‘more detainees with disabilities than their able-bodied counterparts (25% versus 12%) said that they had been victimised by staff’.
Mistreatments of detainees such as these are commonplace, as detainees are forced to endure constant intimidation and threatening behaviour from staff. The report found that the number of complaints made was high, with 21% of detainees stating they had made a complaint since arriving at the centre. And although the report states that they had witnessed largely positive interactions between staff and detainees, this can be regarded as a mere smokescreen for the abuse committed by staff against detainees, who are often violently forced into ‘single separation’ cells and left there for an inhumane amount of time.
The report has caused a stir in mainstream media and among politicians, who have feigned outrage at the discovery of such terrible conditions for detainees. Immigration Minister Mark Harper stated: ‘Clearly, performance by the contractor running Harmondsworth has been below the high standard expected’, and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said ‘People will rightly be appalled by this incident and the Home Secretary should be appalled too.’
And yet such injustices are nothing new. This was starkly shown through the recent deportation of asylum seeker Isa Muazu, who had been detained at Harmondsworth. Even though Muazu’s health was in a critical condition due to being on hunger strike, the Home Office ordered his deportation to Nigeria to face certain persecution.
This report confirms the continued existence of large-scale repression of immigration detainees around the country by private contractors, including GEO Group, Serco and G4S. And whilst Nick Hardwick, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, claims there is ‘some uncertainty about the future of the management contract’, if left unchallenged, the degradation and oppression of asylum seekers by the racist British state is sure to remain.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 237 February/March 2014
