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NINE MEMBERS OF staff at the security firm G4S have been suspended from an immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport, following a BBC Panorama undercover investigation.
According to the BBC, the programme has footage recorded at Brook House showing officers “mocking, abusing and assaulting” people being helped there.
It says it has seen “widespread self-harm and attempted suicides” in the centre.
It added that drug use is “rife”.
Brook House is home to 508 men from Pakistan, Albania, Nigeria, Afghanistan and India.
It is one of 11 detention removal centres in England. Together, the centres took in 28,908 people last year.
The programme, which is set to air on Monday, contains footage it claims was recorded by a custody officer at the centre, which holds detainees who face deportation from the UK.
BBC Panorama says it saw “chaos, incompetence and abuse” at the centre, describing it as a “toxic mess”.
[image alt="Brook House Immigration Removal Centre" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/09/brook-house-immigration-removal-centre-2-296x182.jpg" width="296" height="182" credit-source="Gareth%20Fuller" credit-via="PA%20Images" caption="Brook%20House%20detention%20centre" class="alignnone" /end]
In a statement today, G4S said it immediately commenced an investigation into the allegations, reported them to the relevant authorities and suspended the nine staff members in questions “as a precaution”.
A BBC correspondent said half of the people in Brook House are foreign nationals convicted of crimes and await deportation.
“Some of them aren’t just there for hours or days, some of them are there for weeks and months, so there is a huge amount of frustration being built up,” he said.
Commenting on the allegations, Jerry Petherick, managing director for G4S custodial and detention services in the UK said:
“There is no place for the type of conduct described in the allegations anywhere in G4S.
“Such behaviour is not representative of the many G4S colleagues who do a great job, often in difficult and challenging circumstances, across the country.”
We have not yet been provided with the recorded evidence which forms the basis of the allegations and it is inappropriate to pre-judge the outcome of our investigation.
“Once we have seen the evidence and concluded the investigation, I will ensure that we take the appropriate action.”
Brook House is operated privately by G4S.
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Will reserve judgment until I’ve seen the footage myself won’t just take the BBC’s word for it.
@Tommy Duke: But if someone says the refugees are economic migrants or terrorists will you be as sceptical?
@Tommy Duke: Will you reserve judgement on migrants until you see for yourself where they are coming from and what they are enduring too?
@Matt Connolly: we’ve seen more than enough evidence to know they are largely illegal economic immigrants from Africa and not Syrian engineers.
@Tommy Duke: seen?
@Matt Connolly: **** sarcasm alert**** He probably got the facts from Britain First, so it must be true.
@Tommy Duke: Who’s this we you talk about.Have you got a gang now Tommy Puke?
@Seamus Mc Meel: Tommy is one of many. Ask his other aliases Tom, Emmet, Cal, Karl, Richard, etc… They all agree with him.
A vast majority of the migrants originate from drug producing countries, where drug use is rife. You could even say that drug use is part of their culture. Are the BBC trying to make out that drug use is rife because of the dreadful conditions?
@Jonny: I think what they’re getting at is G4S don’t care once they get paid. If there’s abuse of detainees and easy access to drugs – why do the home office continue to award this shower more and more contracts?
@Jonny: Given that drug use is punishable by execution in Pakistan and Afghanistan, i doubt it’s part of their culture. I imagine that most drugs produced in those 2 countries are destined for the west
Really needs to be looked at, this not as simple as an investigation at the end of the day. Slot of questions needs to be asked.
@Free comment ratings: a lot* doesn’t matter though because I wrote a very general comment to pretend I knew what I was talking about. You see lots of people making similar comments like this on here.
@Free comment ratings: lol forgot to switch accounts or do you often talk to yourself?
@Seth Cheffetz: no..I corrected my spelling mistake and also pointed out how general my first comment was. Lol indeed.
@Seth Cheffetz: must have split personality
@decky smith: I don’t
@decky smith: He does!
That’s what private prisons get you
My family member was also abused harassed and the ombudsman ignored it !!!!! Disgraceful of what they did . I hope they never again get a psa licence !
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