#DivestfromdetentION
& the case for In-House
DivestfromdetentION For nearly a decade, cleaners at SOAS have been fighting against indignities, injustices and inequalities that stem from their position as outsourced workers. They have consistently demanded to be brought ‘inhouse’’ and be employed directly by SOAS.
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Outsourcing companies are only accountable to their shareholders and as such reduce their entirety of their operations to the pursuit of profit. Not only do these companies treat their workers poorly, they are also involved in a range of deeply unethical enterprises; taking on jobs other organisations don’t want to
risk their reputations on.
Despite widespread support for the cleaners’ demand, SOAS plans to sign a new five year long contract to keep the cleaners outsourced. This booklet explores some of those outsourcing companies being considered for this multi-million pound deal. As we fight for workers’ rights in our own institutions, it is important to consider the ways in which these companies profit and produce multiple forms of oppression and to remind ourselves that our struggles will always be interlinked.3
Mitie:
Mitie is the UK's largest provider of immigration detention services. In September 2014, the Home Office awarded Mitie a £180m, eight year contract to run Colnbrook and Harmondsworth Detention Centres in addition to its pre-existing contract for Campsfield House immigration removal centre.
2011:
Mitie's contract to run Campsfield began 30th May 2011. Within a week, 23 Iraqi and 14 Afghan detainees went on hunger strike. In August 2011, Ianos Dragutan, a 35-year old Moldovan man, hung himself in a shower cubicle at Campsfield.
2012:
Another 13 men from Darfur went on hunger strike. One of the Darfuri men, who had been detained for two months, had a gunshot wound to the leg, causing chronic pain and walking difficulties.
2013:
On 18 October 2013, due to a lack of safety provisions, a major blaze engulfed the centre. The fire occurred when Farid Pardiaz, a 25-year-old detainee from Afghanistan, tried to kill himself by setting fire to bedding in his cell. Days prior to this, Mr Pardiaz was refused access to a doctor despite previous psychiatric reports determining that he was experiencing a ‘depressive episode’. There were no sprinklers installed, despite Mitie’s claims to specialise in fire safety. 4
2014:
In May 2014, detainees in Campsfield, Colnbrook and Harmondsworth went on a mass hunger strike. On May 2nd, Over 150 hunger striking detainees in Harmondsworth occupied the main court yard in protest against conditions. In August 2014, an unannounced inspection report of Campsfield IRC found that from 2012 to 2013 3 children were held in Campsfield, one of whom was detained for 62 days (HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2014). In 2014, undercover reporting from Corporate Watch revealed that Mitie was employing detainees to work for ÂŁ1 an hour.
2015:
70 incidents of self-harm reported in the first quarter and 107 in total, amongst Harmondsworth’s population of 615. In March 2015 Channel 4 accessed undercover footage filmed inside Harmondsworth from October to December 2014, it showed detainees begging to be deported because of conditions;
"I beg you. I'm tired I don't want to die here. I want freedom, I got detained, and three years now I've spent my life behind doors. Why?" 5
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Mitie The IMB's 2014 Annual Report for Harmondsworth IRC found:
‘'Harmondsworth IRC is in large parts a depressing, dirty place and in some cases has a destructive effect on the welfare of detainees. Issues that contribute to this include: the poor maintenance of the Centre, detaining vulnerable detainees in unsuitable conditions, the continued detention of those “unfit to be detained” and the complaints process.'’ (IMB, 2014, p.4) The IMB's 2014 Annual Report for Colnbrook IRC found that:
“The board observed a general deterioration in the cleanliness of the centre, activities not being operated as frequently as before the change in contract, and staff morale being low.'' (IMB, 2014, p.25)
43% of complaints to the IMB in 2014 were made in the last four months of the year, after the contract was awarded to Mitie. 7
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Interserve Prisons & Immigration Detention Interserve holds investments of 49% in Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, 33% in HMP Addiewell Prison ltd (£36 million gross assets), and Interserve Investments shares a £47m equity stake in HMP Shortwood;
Bronzefield:
Interserve and its partner, UKIDS, were awarded a £47m contract to create and operate a new, women’s-only prison, HMP Bronzefield. A report from the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons described conditions in HMP Bronzefield as ‘squalid’ and observed ‘cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment’ including the incarceration of one woman in the segregation unit for over six years.
2009- 2014: In 2014, Interserve was awarded a £20m + contract to design and build the Ministry of Justice’s expansion of HMP Peterborough. In 2009, the Ministry of Justice awarded Interseve a £110 million contract to design and construct HMP Prison ISIS Young
Racism & industrial action:
BLACKLISTING OF TRADE UNIONISTS, RACISM AND INDUSTRIAL ACTION: -In 2015, A Unite workplace rep, John Kelly’s, claims that he was blacklisted by his employer Interserve Industrial Services because of his union activities while working at a power station at Runcorn, Cheshire, were upheld at an Employment Tribunal. Kelly was awarded a total of £3,253.11 by the Liverpool tri-bunal for unfair dismissal (£2,003.11) and damages for injured feelings (£1,250). In December 2014, cleaners employed by Interserve at Waterloo Underground Station launched a two day strike following a comprehensive breakdown in industrial relations relating to a range of fundamental issues including; - the unwarranted victimisation and dismissal of RMT members - underpayment of wages - ignorance of basic employment rights and failure to follow ..agreed procedures - bullying and harassment of staff Of particular concern, were reports of racism from local Interserve managers that interserve refused point blank to
Bid Rigging:
- In September 2009, following "one of the largest ever Competition Act investigations" by the Office of the Fair Trading (OFT), Interserve was found to have engaged in illegal anti-competitive bid-rigging activities, and in particular cover pricing, and was fined ÂŁ11,634,750. - According to the OFT press release 17 April 2008, cover pricing “describes a situation where one or more bidders collude with a competitor during a tender process to obtain a price or prices which are intended to be too high to win the contract ... the tendering authority is not made aware of the contacts between bidders, leaving it with a false impression of the level of competition and this may result in it paying inflated prices.â€?
Bouygues
bouygues and detention
Bouygues group has been fully involved in the process of marketization of French prisons (through partial privatisation) and the construction of administrative detention centre. It should be noted that the French State has been condemned at multiple occasions by the European Court of Human Rights for systematic violations of prisoners’ rights and more broadly Human rights organizations have been constantly reiterating the fact that administrative detention centres do not conform to the most basic aspects of French and European human rights law. Bouygues is the main private actor in the sector since the start of 2004 – there were no private companies in the prison sector before - and is fully implicated in the development of unlawful repressive state apparatus. Bouygues builds and manages prisons and administrative detention centres For the sake of discretion, Bouygues originally made most of their bids through subsidiary companies. Since the public support of former French governments (Sarkozy I II III) they have operated more openly. Some of the administrative detention centres built and managed by Bouygues and the French authorities were used to detain children and pregnant women. Increasingly it has been pointed out by multiple human rights organisations that the conditions of these detention centres are worsening.
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Detention centres built by Bouygues (not an exhaustive list) since 2001 have taken part in the construction or expansion of nearly fifteen administrative detention centres . Notably these subsidiary companies have taken part in such activities i. Norpac Parc “le Sextant” 2 rue John Hadley 59650 Villeneuve ............d’Ascq 0033 3 20 64 40 00 -
Administrative Detention Centre of Coquelles - Pas de Calais.
This centre has been at the central in the French authority’s strategy to deal with refugees and migrants in Calais. ii. OF Equipements Le Doublon 11 av Dubonnet 92400 ////......// ./// ///Courbevoie 0033 1 46 67 77 67 - Administrative Detention Centre of de Palaiseau - Essonne iii. GFC Construction 23, rue Maryse Bastié CP 3 69676 Bron ....... ........ ...Cedex 0033 4 72 81 18 18 -
Administrative Detention Centre of Lyon – Rhônes
iv. Bouygues Construction 1 Avenue Eugène Freyssinet-... ......... .... ....... ... Guyancourt - 78065 Saint-Quentin en Yvelynes v. Quille Construction 167 Rue Michelet 60280 Marny Les ..... ...
Prisons built and managed since 2008 : Bouygues Construction has been in charge of a state private partnership to build 4000 new prison spots and to effectively manage the new establishments. Its subsidiaries DV Construction, GTB Construction Quille and GFC Construction conducted six prisons in France, such as La Farlède (Var), ChauconinNeufmontiers (Seine et Marne) and Liancourt (Oise). In 2005, the world leader in building signed a contract worth € 140 million for future prisons in Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), Bourgen-Bresse (Rhône-Alpes) and Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). In 2008, Bouygues won the contract to build centers of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Annoeullin (North) and Réau (Seine-et-Marn) on payment of rent on 27 years for a value of € 40 million before tax. In 2014 Norpac and Quille, both Bouygues subsidiaries, were contracted for the construction of a new highly securitized prisons in Vendin-le-Vieil. This prison largely denounced as inhumane by human rights and prisoners groups has been the site of two major prisoner revolts in 2015. One of which included the sequestration of prison management.
Bribery and Corruption:
In 1998 the Bouygues Group and two of France's other largest construction companies were subjected to a major investigation for an alleged agreed system for misappropriating public funds. An extensive article on the Public Services International Research Unit Web site read, "The companies participated in a corrupt cartel over building work for schools in the Ile-de-France region between 1989 and 1996. Contracts worth FF 28 billion (approximately $500 million) were shared out by the three groups, in meetings that took place in a hotel near the Champs-Elysees in Paris" (February 9, 1999).
REFERENCES
- http://www.imb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Harmondsworth-IMB-AnnualReport-2014.pdf - https://corporatewatch.org/news/2015/aug/24/mitie-profits-over-%C2%A32m-detentioncentres-despite-criticisms - http://www.imb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Colnbrook-2014.pdf - https://corporatewatch.org/news/2014/sep/01/care-custody-mities-detention-centrecontracts - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hunger-strikes-rising-levels-of-self-harmand-huge-profits-business-is-booming-for-private-prison-10471107.html - https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/phil-miller/investigating-mitie-market-leaderin-uk-immigration-detention - http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/02/ Campsfield-House-web-2014.pdf - https://corporatewatch.org/news/2015/feb/03/child-detained-two-months-mistake-mitiecentre - http://www.humanite.fr/le-marche-de-lenfermement-aubaine-pour-bouygues-etcie-587330 http://prisonvalley.arte.tv/fr/forums/discussion/34/prisons-privees-faits-donnees-etperspectives/ - http://www.interserve.com/docs/default-source/investors/financial-reports/integratedreporting/2013/principle-subsidiaries-associated-undertakings-.pdf
Illustrations by Hannah KirmesDaly www.brushandbow.com