Brook House Statement

Swwb and SWAN Response to revelations of abuse at Brook House Detention Centre: 3.9.2017

Following the recent revelations of systemic abuse at the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre Swan and Swwb welcome the initial actions taken to safeguard the people being detained there.

Immigration detention and removal centres have long been known to be institutions of sexual, emotional and physical harm and we feel the need to speak out about the continued ill treatment and harmful effects of detention which is endemic within our current system of removal. Particularly, we are concerned by centres run by the private firm G4S.

G4S has repeatedly failed in its attempts to facilitate safe care to society’s most vulnerable people, who have attempted to find safety in the UK. G4S were also the involved during the death of Jimmy Mubenga, who died whilst being restrained by G4S security guards on a BA flight in 2010.

The footage shown in the Panaroma programme depicts the cruelty and barbarism of a broken system whereby those seeking safety in the UK are shown to be subject to ritual humiliation and degradation.

Swwb and SWAN call for an end to the arbitrary detention and removal of those seeking safety. We call for the end to a private security firm being given responsibility to provide services to those in need of social work support. We condemn not just the individuals involved in this latest revelation but the prevalent narrative which allows such human rights abuses to take place, by creating punitive rather than supportive systems. We consider that the Home Office should immediately withdraw its contracts from G4S.