Court hears detainee death only costs £10,000 fine

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The Information Tribunal heard an appeal today by the Home Office against an Information Commissioner decision requiring it to release data regarding failures by commercial contractors at the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook immigration detention centres.

In a freedom of information request, Phil Miller asked the Home Office for internal audits of the two detention centres written by contractors Serco and the Geo Group and detailing the companies’ performance against their multi-million pound contracts.

Some information regarding the level of contractual penalties was released.  Amongst other details, it shows that the Home Office imposes a penalty of just £10,000 for an incident of self-harm resulting in death.

Read more in the Guardian, Corporate Watch and Deighton Pierce Glynn

Death in shackles of elderly man stopped at Gatwick ‘shameful’

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Exclusive: Ombudsman says Home Office detention of Alois Dvorzac, 84, who was suffering dementia and heart disease, was on ‘threshold of inhuman’

The death of an 84-year-old man who died in shackles after being detained at Gatwick airport was a “wholly unacceptable” and “shameful” end to his life, an independent investigation found.

A scathing report by the prisons ombudsman on the death of engineer Alois Dvorzac, who was suffering dementia and stopped on his way from Canada to Slovenia to see his daughter, concluded that his detention by the Home Office was on “the threshold of inhuman and degrading”.

Read the full story in the Guardian

Hunger strikes, rising levels of self-harm and huge profits: business is booming for private prison companies in the UK

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A company running detention centres for refugees and asylum seekers is making millions amid claims of deteriorating conditions.

When American entrepreneurs were busy promoting private prisons, one of them described the business model as “like a hotel with a guaranteed occupancy”. Unfortunately, that message hasn’t been lost on this side of the Atlantic either.

Running Britain’s immigration detention centres, where thousands of migrants are locked up without any time limit, pending possible deportation, is equally lucrative. Mitie Care and Custody, the company that runs three such detention facilities in the UK, has just recorded a six fold increase in its annual profits. The firm cashed in over £2 million for the last financial year.

Read the full article in the Independent here