Serco: The firm given contract despite being dogged by allegations of abuse and maltreatment of immigrants

Outsourcing giant's work across public services in Britain, including justice, health, defence and immigration, has been overshadowed by accusations over treatment of people in its care

Health workers demonstrating in London in 2017 over their pay and treatment by Serco (Rex)

With 50,000 employees in Britain, Serco is a giant in the private contractor sector, but its work across public services in Britain, including justice, health, defence and immigration, has been overshadowed by accusations over treatment of people in its care.

The firm, which has just been awarded £200m contracts to run Brook House and Tinsley House immigration removal centres near Heathrow, already runs Yarl’s Wood, Britain’s only detention centre for women. However, staff there have faced allegations of sexual abuse and have been criticised for paying detainees as little as £1 an hour for working.

As recently as this month, a court heard that a woman on trial for assaulting custody officers had been involved in an altercation with 11 members of Serco staff, during which she claimed she was thrown to the floor “like a bag of cement”.

Serco, whose chief executive is Rupert Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill, also runs controversial immigration centres for the Australian government. The Christmas Island detention centre, which previously held thousands of immigrants, was closed in 2018 following concerns over harsh treatment of migrants on the island but re-opened last year. It currently holds four people.

In September 2013, Serco was accused of covering up incidents of sexual abuse at Yarl’s Wood, with several detainees alleging that staff had sexually abused them during detention. The claims led to the dismissal of at least three officers and an out-of-court settlement.

Serco has also faced accusations of mistreatment in its work outside immigration detention. In August 2018, it was disclosed that Serco had been planning to evict asylum seekers before their appeal procedure was completed.

Lawyers questioned whether this was legal under Scottish law, but it was later ruled twice that taking such action was lawful. Since September 2019, Serco has no longer held the contract nor been responsible for providing housing for asylum seekers in Glasgow.

The company retained responsibility for providing some 5,000 properties occupied by asylum seekers who are waiting for their claims to be processed, despite concerns that outsourcing the service had resulted in “squalid, unsafe, slum housing conditions”.

The move to give them the contracts at Brook House and Tinsley House – currently run by G4S – were welcomed by immigration minister Kevin Foster as “a major step forward”. But campaigners fear it will turn out to be a step in the wrong direction.