Refugee centre gave job to BNP candidate

The security firm Group 4 employed a British National Party member to work with asylum-seekers at a detention centre despite the party's views on immigration.

Richard Green, who is standing as a BNP candidate in this week's local elections, passed Group 4's vetting procedure to become a custody officer and physical training instructor at Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, Europe's largest immigration detention facility. Mr Green was employed there between April and November 2001, when he was not a paid-up member of the BNP. At his interview, he was not asked by Group 4 if he had any links with racist groups.

Alastair Burt, the Conservative MP for North-east Bedfordshire, has written to Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister, to demand an investigation. "Membership of the BNP would seem to most people to indicate a political view of immigrants and the immigrant process," Mr Burt said. Refugee support groups also called on the Government to investigate existing vetting procedures for detention centre staff.

Group 4 said it would be discriminatory to inquire into applicants' political affiliations.

Emma Ginn, a spokeswoman for the Campaign to Stop Arbitrary Detentions at Yarl's Wood, said: "It's appalling that he was allowed to work with people who have already experienced persecution in their own families."

The treatment of asylum-seekers in detention centres has attracted fierce criticism. Earlier this month, a report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons found that asylum-seekers in detention centres were subjected to routine strip searches and received little help for mental health problems.

Half of Yarl's Wood has been closed since February last year after a riot by detainees.