Showing posts with label Serco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serco. Show all posts
10/27/11
Fourth Death in Villawood Immigration Detention Centre
RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees Media Release
In the early hours of the morning, on Wednesday 26th October 2011, RISE was given the tragic news that “S”, a 27 year old Sri Lankan Tamil refugee from Villawood Immigration Detention centre (IDC) in the suburbs of Sydney, killed himself after drinking poison.
This day marked 2 years and 24 days of S’s mandatory and indefinite incarceration in Australia’s Immigration detention network. It also marked “Deepavali” (The Festival of Light) that he, as a Hindu, wished to celebrate at his friend’s house. The day before Deepavali, S received the news that his application to visit his friend’s house with SERCO escorts had been rejected by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. SERCO officers had inspected the house sometime back and had indicated to his friend that they were satisfied with the layout of the house.
With limited access to legal and other welfare support services for asylum seekers and refugees this man was among many whose application for refugee status was rejected twice in Christmas island IDC after they arrived by boat to seek asylum. S was finally accepted in August 2011 as a refugee, after the long struggle to get through the days in a non-transparent, hostile immigration detention environment including witnessing 3 deaths of fellow detainees who committed suicide in the space of 3 months in Villawood IDC.
All 8 who protested on the roof with “S” were subsequently recognised as refugees, but now, just three have been released with a visa, while the rest are still being held indefinitely in detention. One of these detainees is undergoing treatment for tuberculosis after repeated requests for medical treatment for more than a year. All of these detained refugees, including S, applied for community detention.
At the time of his death, S was held in the “housing” area. This is the same area in which a family (including 3 children) from the boat the Oceanic Viking are being held. Like S, they too have been detained for more than 2 years. Refugees with adverse security assessments held in other parts of Villawood IDC were informed on 25th October 2011, that they would be transferred to the housing area. One of these men, refused to move, with the statement that this was nothing more than “housing arrest” and did nothing to solve the problem of being detained indefinitely without any offer of a durable solution in sight.
Throughout his time in detention, S had been quite active in asserting his rights and questioning the actions of SERCO and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that had kept him arbitrarily detained and moved haphazardly about Villawood IDC, particularly in the last 12 months of his incarceration. These actions included S's detention in isolation as well as SERCO staff conveniently removing him and the family from the Oceanic Viking from their rooms when the Australian Human Rights Commission came to Villawood IDC to interview detainees in the "housing" area. This latter act was considerably suspect given that these two parties had been in detention much longer than the other detainees in the "housing" area.
Just after he got his refugee status, a RISE advocate took down some notes in the faint hope that S would have his visa and soon be able to access our settlement program. He had years of work experience in Welding (including Gas cutting and X-ray welding) and had worked in the construction industry. Sadly, S's hope to settle and start a new life in Australia will now never come to pass.
To quote a refugee from Villawood detention centre: “Detention in Australia is like tying a person’s hands and putting food in front of him, which he cannot eat; after some time he loses his appetite and he doesn’t feel like eating it anymore. That is how we feel about life after we have been in detention.”
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Regards,
RISE Media Unit
Refugee Survivors and Ex-detainees
247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Victoria 3000.
Donate http://www.givenow.com.au/riserefugee
T:(03)9639 8623|M:0430 007 586|F:(03)9650 3689|Email:www.riserefugee.org/
3/30/11
Tainui supports privately managed prisons
What a bunch of Maori $ellouts. Serco are serial human rights abusers. Clearly Tuku has no scruples or ethics going into business with dogs like Serco. This is NOT a gain for Maori, this is a money making opportunity for Serco & Tainui Inc. It ushers in the expansion of the prison industrial complex in Aotearoa.
Is it to much to ask Maori commentators & the Maori media need to stop being so sycophantic and start asking some hard questions and start giving some rigorous analysis like . I dont recall one article from a Maori journalist questioning the corporate iwi support for the privitisation of prisons, when the excesses and human rights abuses of the transnationals the want to go into joint partnership with is easy to find.
See Also :
SERCO Sharples Corporate Kupapa
As more and more Western governments use the services of Serco – the British multinational with an unhealthy hold on prisons and detention centres – it’s worth remembering the gross human rights abuses under its watch http://antonyloewenstein.com/tag/serco/
Serco Rap Sheet:
• Serco staff bullied & inappropriately used excessive violence to restrain a mentally ill 14yo boy, lead to his suicide -- the youngest UK death in custody, in a Serco-run detention... facility
• Serco staff refused to address pleas for medical assistance of a meningitis-affected prisoner for four days, dismissing it saying he was “at it” again and “he was probably suffering from the flu and was only looking for tablets”, despite knowing the potential consequences of this in light of his medical history (he had previously slipped into a coma previously from the illness prior to his prison term). Guards told him to take Panadol, their inaction and stalling resulted in his death. He had previously lodged a complaint about his lack of access to medical care for his condition in the Serco centre
• Kilmarnock, the only privatised prison run by Serco in Scotland, has a higher than the national average number of deaths in custody
• High levels of self-harm & suicide in Serco-run centres. Australia’s detention facilities have seen a fourfold increase in self-harm rates in the past year, coinciding with the awarding of Serco’s contract to run Australia’s facilities. Self-harm behaviour has “spread among adolescents” according to Dr. Louise Newman, head of the Detention Health Advisory Group
• People in Serco facilities in the UK are sleeping in toilets to deal with overcrowding, with a “worrying” deterioration in access to GPs and health care and increases in violence and self-harm, following an unannounced visit by independent UK chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers
• ‘Squalid’ conditions with ‘institutional meanness’ with Serco denying detainees pillows and toilet seats – Owers
• Suicide attempt and subsequent death of asylum seeker detained at Serco-run UK Colbrook Immigration Reception Centre. This followed obfuscation from Serco staff & the denial of help for his ongoing mental illness, including the removal of his anti-depressants upon his arrival in detention during a high at risk time for his mental stability
• Similarities between desperate protests in Serco-run immigration centres and prisons in UK and Australia. In the past six months in Australia, we have seen recurring hunger strikes at Darwin and Villawood IDC, public protests involving self-harm at Villawood, and regular breakouts at Darwin IDC.
• A death in custody at Serco-run Curtin IDC due to unspecified ‘health condition’ after being found unconscious, unofficially reported to be a heart attack from a congenital past condition. This raises questions as to the provision of health care at Curtin – if staff were aware of his apparent condition, what measures were taken to prevent an incident like this occurring? If they were taken, why did they not prevent his death?
• The suicide of detainee at Villawood IDC followed Serco staff dismissing attempts from refugee advocates becoming involved in dissuading the detainee from the roof. This included a Serco staff member hanging up on a phone call from a concerned friend. The detainee jumped to his death a short time later. Following his death, Serco staff cancelled a previously planned memorial service for the deceased by detainees at midnight the morning of the service. No reason was given for this.
• The next day, a group of asylum seekers took to the roof while a hunger strike continued inside Villawood. After they publicly self-harmed and were denied water and food until their return to the ground a day and a half later, a second group of detainees took to the roof. A member of this group also self-harmed, slipping into unconsciousness. Following their return to the ground, their advocate has said Serco staff have punished their protest with separation detention.
• Allegations of sexual abuse of children at Serco-run Leonora Alternative Place of Detention, with Serco staff unable to prevent the alleged abuse occurring.
• Disturbing sexualisation of children in UK Serco immigration detention centres: “One parent spontaneously complained that he had found his daughter in the [UK Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention] centre without any clothes on. His child explained that she had been encouraged to undress and play “sex games” instigated by another detained child. This father felt that there was inadequate supervision of the children within the center and after this incident he no longer allowed his children to play with the other children. Another mother spontaneously commented on the sexualized behavior of children within the center.”
• Illness outbreaks of viruses and skin-based diseases affecting children in overcrowded UK Serco immigration detention centres
• Serco combines violent prisoner populations with asylum seekers, resulting in “dangerous” environments (Owers) at UK immigration detention centres
• Violent force from Serco staff ‘high’ (Owers) at UK’s Colnbrook IDC
• Serco use separation detention for long periods to manage difficult detainees in UK immigration detention, including separating mothers from children
• Quality and quantity for meaningful education and training for detainees ‘insufficient’ (Owers) for long periods in UK immigration detention facilities
• Excessive control & violent restraints used by Serco staff at UK Yarl’s Wood IDC on women and children. Generally aggressive and rude temperament of staff disrespectful of detainee human dignity
• Yarl’s Wood IDC women detainees have taken Serco to the High Court in March 2010, questioning their inhumane treatment from guards. Some have stripped naked to protest “being treated like animals”
• On 8 February 2010, their peaceful protest was met by attacks from Serco staff and forced confinement in a locked corridor without access to water, food or medication
• Detainee allegations of ongoing racist abuse from Serco staff in UK IDCs
• Requests for medical assistance and welfare of children ignored, denied and/or substantially delayed by Serco staff at Yarl’s Wood IDC
• Meetings between government agencies and Serco to consider the implications for women and children’s welfare of prolonged detention focused on public relations management and potential counter-legal concerns, instead of ongoing independent accountability for detainee health and dignity
• Serco continues to refuse to be interviewed on its activities in running Australia’s immigration detention facilities. Why?
References:
A. Owers, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, ‘COLNBROOK IMMIGRATION REMOVAL CENTRE – SIGNIFICANTLY LESS SAFE’, Press Release, November 2007, <http://www.justice.gov.uk/inspectorates/hmi-prisons/docs/colnbrook_pn-rps.pdf>
M. Wainwright, ‘Report into death of boy, 14, calls for reform of youth custody’, The Guardian, September 3, 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/sep/03/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation/print>.
Associated Press, “New inquest ordered into teenage boy's death in custody”, The Guardian, 22 January 2009, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/22/youngpeople-deathsincustody/print>.
A. Lorek, K. Ehntholt, A. Nesbitt, E. Wey, C. Githinji, E. Rossor, R. Wickramasinghe, ‘The mental and physical health difficulties of children held within a British immigration detention center: A pilot study’, Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 33, 2009, pp. 573-585 <http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/Campaigns/19432_full.pdf>
K. Smith, “Inmate’s pleas for aid overlooked four days before death”, The Sunday Herald (Scotland), July 20, 2008, <http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2403695.0.inmates_pleas_for_aid_overlooked_four_days_before_death.php>S. Gaines, “Inmates sleep in toilets at overcrowded prison”, Sunday Guardian, July 22, 2008, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/22/doncaster.prison/print>Institute of Race Relations, “Kenny Peter's inquest points to asylum failures”, 5 October 2006, <http://www.irr.org.uk/2006/october/ha000013.html>E. Dugan, ‘Mothers detained in immigration centre hold 'naked' protest’, The Telegraph, April 11, 2008, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mothers-detained-in-immigration-centre-hold-naked-protest-807802.html>Y. Narushima, ‘Self-harm rates increase fourfold’, The Age, October 4, 2010, <http://www.theage.com.au/national/selfharm-rates-increase-fourfold-20101003-162r8.html>L. Marshall, ‘Detained refugee dies in Perth hospital’, 31 August 2010, Independent Media Centre Australia, <http://indymedia.org.au/2010/08/31/detainee-dies-at-curtin-detention-centre>
12/19/10
SERCO Sharples Corporate Kupapa
'Dr Sharples joked he was looking to accommodate his family in a secure unit outside a New Zealand prison so he could feed them each for $4.50 a day'
Sharples is paying off his mortgage on the backs of his cronies making money out of the incarceration/slave labour/misery of our people. Shame on him hope he chokes on it.
As more and more Western governments use the services of Serco – the British multinational with an unhealthy hold on prisons and detention centres – it’s worth remembering the gross human rights abuses under its watch http://antonyloewenstein.com/tag/serco/
HOPE SERCO-TAINUI LINK-UP WILL LEAD TO PRISON REFORM
Maori Affairs and Associate Corrections minister Pita Sharples is counting on outsourcer Serco and its Maori partner to change the way prisons operate.
The British company, which runs a number of private prisons in Australia, has been picked to run the Auckland Central... Remand Prison at Mount Eden.
Dr Sharples says the prison system's focus on punishment and incarceration has created structural baggage, and left room for innovation.
“The whole idea of rehabilitating these people to put them out as productive members of society is not yet captured, and that’s what I want to see, and I’m hoping that Serco and I believe it’s Tainui they’re involved will do a good job and introduce meaningful programmes into the prison. That would be really great,” he says.
Dr Sharples wants to see more drug rehabilitation, Maori focused units, and other targeted programmes for prisoners
Serco Morgan Corporate Kupapa
'The concept appalled me then and still does. First grow the raw material, then put it in a can and look after it, I said. It was investing money in the belief that there was an endless supply of losers out there waiting to be processed. I...t was a depressing vision of the future, one with half the tribe and their mates in prison while the other half was being paid by the state to run it. Indeed the prosperity of the tribe would depend on a continuing - and hopefully expanding - supply of the raw material'. Of all the places Maori could invest their Treaty settlement and other money, this would have to be the most inappropriate. Ethical investment it is not.'
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