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

The secret story of Grenada’s independence

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Using declassified British government files at the National Archives, the author shows how the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, which overthrew the radical government of Maurice Bishop and the New Jewel Movement, was not the first time that such an invasion was contemplated in Grenada’s recent history. The UK had had an almost identical plan to land a battalion of troops on Grenada a decade earlier, on the very eve of independence, to ensure the continuation in power of the dictatorial Eric Gairy, should the widespread unrest across the island lead to his ousting.

Read the full article in the Race & Class journal here

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

‘It’s gonna break’: life in UK’s biggest detention centre

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Secret filming reveals conditions inside Harmondsworth immigration detention centre for the first time, where hundreds of people face deportation.

The footage was shot by a detainee and obtained by Corporate Watch as part of a five month investigation into Mitie, the outsourcing firm that took over Harmondsworth in September 2014 under a multi-million pound Home Office contract.

The videos, some of which are also featured on Channel 4 News tonight, reveal:

– Home Office staff admitting that conditions in Harmondsworth are “shit”, and that detainees are not allowed cameras to photograph inside the centre because the government “don’t want the bad publicity that would entail”.

– A guard saying that the new Mitie management has “fucked this place up”, making staff work more shifts and get less rest. “It’s just gonna break. There’s only so much people can take”, the guard warns.

– Paul Morrison, Mitie’s most senior manager at Harmondsworth, telling detainees that they will be locked inside their cells for two hours longer at night as part of the company’s new contract.

– Detainees living in unhygienic conditions with pigeons flying around inside, overflowing drains, rotting food in the kitchen and bed bugs in their cells.

– A detainee suffering injuries from what appear to be epileptic fits.

– Mitie guards selling counterfeit clothes to detainees that had been confiscated at customs by the UK Border Force.

Read the full report and watch the videos on Corporate Watch here