A leaked training manual showing how Serco teaches its staff to kick, punch and immobilise refugees held in detention centres in Australia confirms what many have long thought: the privatisation profiteer does not just tolerate its staff abusing refugees, it teaches them how to do it.
In the same month the Home Office handed the company contracts worth £175m to provide accommodation and transport for refugees in the north west of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a Serco training manual for staff in its detention centres across Australia was leaked to the Crikey website.
The manual shows detention centre guards how to kick, punch and jab their fingers into detainees' limbs and “pressure points” to immobilise them. It contains explicit instructions on how to “hit” and “strike” people in a way that is "legally defensible in court”. Guards are trained to:
"The Department of Immigration likes to say that detention centres are not prisons, or places of punishment, but Serco's manual clearly establishes exactly such a framework." Chris Bowen, Australia's immigration minister, called the manual “out-dated” and “no longer in use” but did not say how it had been updated. A spokesperson said the government would not be “discussing further the contents of the current manual for matters of operational security”. According to the recently-formed Serco Watch group, there are presently three inquiries into deaths in immigration detention centres run by Serco in Australia. In the UK, detainees in the Yarl's Wood immigration prison near Bedford accused Serco guards of "physical and psychological torture" and "racist abuse" after they were locked in a corridor for eight hours without access to food, water, toilet or medical care for protesting against their continued detention (see here). Serco's management of youth custody centres have also seen it heavily criticised for excessive force. An inquest jury said "unlawful use of force" by staff in the Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham contributed to 14-year-old Adam Rickwood's decision to take his own life in August 2004. More protests... but even more contracts The week before the manual was released protesters from the Occupy movement in Australia had targeted Serco with demonstrations in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, calling for the company's contracts to run detention centres across the country and the new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia to be terminated. A spokesperson for Occupy Perth said Serco was "symbolic and symptomatic of the whole culture of privatisation” and neither as “transparent nor as accountable as government entities”, and “more concerned with shareholder profits than responsible public service”. The Australian government remains too enamoured with Serco's cost-saving promises to listen to the growing criticism in the country, a position shared by its UK counterpart, which continues to pass responsibility Serco's way wherever possible. The company won contracts worth around £280m to provide community health services in Suffolk and facilities management services to East Kent Hospitals in the last month, and is even in the running to take over children's services in Devon. How lucky, then, that the company teaches its staff to be so caring and sensitive. See also: Asylum seekers to be housed by prison guards
December 22, 2011
Under the microscope: pathology gets the Serco treatment
November 9, 2011 Serco accused of negligence and assault in Australia
26 September, 2011 Serco dismisses self-harm in immigration prisons as 'bargaining tool'
12 August, 2011 Compulsory O2 mobiles for Yarl's Wood detainees
26 September, 2011 New detention phone system to keep detainees under control
6 April, 2011 New business opportunities: Deportation hostels
10 February, 2011 Protests against Serco in solidarity with Yarl's Wood hunger strikers
25 February, 2010 Immigration Prisons: Brutal, Unlawful and Profitable - Yarl's Wood: A Case Study (March 2011) A 20-page briefing looking at various aspects of the UK immigration prisons system, using Yarl's Wood as a case study. You can download a pdf version of the briefing by clicking on this link (free), or you can buy a hard copy from the Corporate Watch online shop (£2).
The manual shows detention centre guards how to kick, punch and jab their fingers into detainees' limbs and “pressure points” to immobilise them. It contains explicit instructions on how to “hit” and “strike” people in a way that is "legally defensible in court”. Guards are trained to:
- use “pain” to defend, subdue and control refugees through punches, palm heel strikes, side angle kicks, front thrust kicks and knee strikes.
- stun, distract, unbalance, cause pain and use a “striking technique” to cause “motor dysfunction” to control “resistive behaviour”.
- target specific “pressure points” in the manner of riot squad police to squeeze nerves as “a valuable subject control option”.
- attack detainees’ jugulars to cause them to fall over.
- employ a “downward kick” to the “lower shin” to cause “high level of pain and mental stunning” lasting up to seven seconds.
- use batons to cause “medium to high intensity [sic] pain” and “forearm muscle cramping”, with the manual advising strikes to be delivered by a “hammer fist”.
"The Department of Immigration likes to say that detention centres are not prisons, or places of punishment, but Serco's manual clearly establishes exactly such a framework." Chris Bowen, Australia's immigration minister, called the manual “out-dated” and “no longer in use” but did not say how it had been updated. A spokesperson said the government would not be “discussing further the contents of the current manual for matters of operational security”. According to the recently-formed Serco Watch group, there are presently three inquiries into deaths in immigration detention centres run by Serco in Australia. In the UK, detainees in the Yarl's Wood immigration prison near Bedford accused Serco guards of "physical and psychological torture" and "racist abuse" after they were locked in a corridor for eight hours without access to food, water, toilet or medical care for protesting against their continued detention (see here). Serco's management of youth custody centres have also seen it heavily criticised for excessive force. An inquest jury said "unlawful use of force" by staff in the Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham contributed to 14-year-old Adam Rickwood's decision to take his own life in August 2004. More protests... but even more contracts The week before the manual was released protesters from the Occupy movement in Australia had targeted Serco with demonstrations in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, calling for the company's contracts to run detention centres across the country and the new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia to be terminated. A spokesperson for Occupy Perth said Serco was "symbolic and symptomatic of the whole culture of privatisation” and neither as “transparent nor as accountable as government entities”, and “more concerned with shareholder profits than responsible public service”. The Australian government remains too enamoured with Serco's cost-saving promises to listen to the growing criticism in the country, a position shared by its UK counterpart, which continues to pass responsibility Serco's way wherever possible. The company won contracts worth around £280m to provide community health services in Suffolk and facilities management services to East Kent Hospitals in the last month, and is even in the running to take over children's services in Devon. How lucky, then, that the company teaches its staff to be so caring and sensitive. See also: Asylum seekers to be housed by prison guards
December 22, 2011
Under the microscope: pathology gets the Serco treatment
November 9, 2011 Serco accused of negligence and assault in Australia
26 September, 2011 Serco dismisses self-harm in immigration prisons as 'bargaining tool'
12 August, 2011 Compulsory O2 mobiles for Yarl's Wood detainees
26 September, 2011 New detention phone system to keep detainees under control
6 April, 2011 New business opportunities: Deportation hostels
10 February, 2011 Protests against Serco in solidarity with Yarl's Wood hunger strikers
25 February, 2010 Immigration Prisons: Brutal, Unlawful and Profitable - Yarl's Wood: A Case Study (March 2011) A 20-page briefing looking at various aspects of the UK immigration prisons system, using Yarl's Wood as a case study. You can download a pdf version of the briefing by clicking on this link (free), or you can buy a hard copy from the Corporate Watch online shop (£2).