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In a privatised children's prison a care worker restrained a boy who died; G4S promoted him. A woman deported for profit by a British government outsourcer stood naked on an airport runway and took an overdose.

A minister who blamed food bank clients for their poverty lined his pockets using Parliamentary expenses. A single dad driving his son to school one day missed the JobCentre's call, so they docked him one week's money.

Shine a Light has sprung from our influential and hard-hitting work on child detention and encompasses G4S: Securing whose world?, Care and justice, Immigration detention and removal in the UK and The attack on legal aid.

Led by acclaimed investigative reporters Clare Sambrook and Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Shine a Light exposes injustice, challenges official lying, and provides intelligence and ammunition to people working for policy change.

The end of domestic violence support for black and brown women in the UK?

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 6 December 2016

Dedicated refuges were created to answer a desperate need. Now their survival is at risk. 

The seeds of post-Brexit racial violence lie in government policy

Jenny Bourne 2 December 2016

Racist attacks are condemned by politicians who stop short of examining their complicity. New research suggests policy ignites hatred.

Iraq abuse allegations: Resist, deny, hide

A.T. Williams 20 November 2016

Theresa May has made it clear she intends to follow previous governments in tarnishing Iraq abuse allegations as false. Final day of our 7 day series.

Rising tide of allegations suggests ‘systemic abuse’ by British military

A.T. Williams 19 November 2016

Rogue military personnel?  Or a deliberate policy of abuse? Day 6 of our 7 day series on alleged abuse by British soldiers in Iraq.

Welcome to my asylum home. I’d offer you a seat — if I had one

John Grayson 18 November 2016

Meanwhile a parliamentary inquiry into asylum housing lumbers on over ten months . . . and today in Leeds the Home Office holds yet another 'consultation' on a sorry business.

British torture in Iraq and the state’s ‘corporate memory loss’

A.T. Williams 18 November 2016

Hooding, sensory deprivation, stress positions. . . methods used illegally in 1970s Northern Ireland are deployed again. (Day 5 of our 7 day series).

From war to occupation in Iraq

A.T. Williams 17 November 2016

The fall of Saddam Hussein and the death of Baha Mousa. (Day 4 of our 7 day series)

The Chilcot Report and the Politics of the Iraq War

A.T. Williams 16 November 2016

Why, in our democracy, is there so little appetite for proper public scrutiny? (Day 3 of our 7 day series)

A drowned boy, an apology, an attack on ‘activist, left-wing human rights lawyers’

A.T. Williams 15 November 2016

Today we explore the death of Ahmed Jabbar Kareem Ali. (Day 2 of our 7 day series) 

A conspiracy cooked up by ‘activist left-wing human rights’ lawyers?

A.T. Williams 14 November 2016

Government and media have denied, dismissed and derided allegations of abuse by British soldiers in Iraq. Over 7 days we’ll interrogate a very British scandal. Day 1: Attack the lawyers.

Delayed lives — the hidden misery of stateless people locked up in the UK

Chris Nash 10 November 2016

Alienated, homeless, denied the right to work, criminalised.

Gavin MacFadyen (1940-2016): Why investigative journalism matters

Gavin MacFadyen 24 October 2016

The inspirational founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism died on Saturday 22 October, 2016.  

Lost childhoods: age disputes in the UK asylum system

Kamena Dorling 20 October 2016

Children seeking asylum in the UK are regularly disbelieved about how old they are and can end up facing harmful, protracted disputes. The culture of disbelief so often criticised in the Home Office has now seeped into some local authorities.

When UK care workers fight back

Richard Whittell 4 October 2016

Workers who provide essential services and compassion to vulnerable people are being forced to fight for the minimum wage.

England’s bonfire of children’s rights

Carolyne Willow 29 September 2016

A new bill threatens decades of carefully drafted laws designed to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in care.

Theresa May, this is not a ‘crisis of migration’, but a crisis of inhumanity

Simon Parker 24 September 2016

In a carefully coded speech, the UK Prime Minister categorises people on the move as “threats that we face” alongside war and global terrorism.

A special gift from UK to Nigeria: promoting human rights or secrecy?

Lotte Lewis Smith and 'Mark Umunna’ 20 September 2016

At Lagos Airport, Nigerians deported from Britain are processed out of sight in a ‘reception centre’ given by Britain.

Rats in the yard: 4 years of UK asylum housing by G4S

John Grayson 13 September 2016

Today, yet again, a Parliamentary committee will hear how commercial landlords are failing asylum seeker tenants. And then what?

Do your parenting by Skype, UK tells fathers being deported to Jamaica

Mia Light 6 September 2016

A secret Home Office flight tomorrow (Wednesday 7 September) will forcibly remove fathers 4,500 miles away from their children in the UK.

Rough handling and restraint: UK forced removals still a nasty business

Lotte Lewis Smith 23 July 2016

A support group gathers disturbing testimony from people deported by commercial contractors.

G4S: Don't blame us — blame the prison system

Rebecca Roberts 14 June 2016

An activist reports from G4S annual general meeting, Surrey, England, 26 May 2016.

British security company G4S confirms that Florida shooter is one of their own

Clare Sambrook 13 June 2016
  • • Omar Mateen, who killed 50 people in gay nightclub, was employed as armed guard by G4S.
  • • G4S guards have killed before.
  • • Company sells its expertise in vetting staff.

How many children are sexually abused in prison?

Carolyne Willow 9 June 2016

In England nobody is counting. How official secrecy and obfuscation on sexual abuse, restraint and injury put children at risk. See also Five more arrests and another critical inspection report for G4S child prisons.

Five more arrests and another critical inspection report for G4S child prisons

Carolyne Willow 9 June 2016

Children tell inspectors of being verbally, physically and sexually abused. See also How many children are sexually abused in prison? 

‘We apologise to anybody who feels let down’

Ally Rogers 7 June 2016

A linguistics student looks at language used by the NHS Trust whose negligence contributed to the death of her cousin. (Ahead of Wednesday’s Parliamentary debate on Southern Health). 

Ghosted away: UK’s secret removal flights examined

Lotte Lewis Smith 6 June 2016

On Home Office flights private sector guards apply restraints so extreme they are very rarely used in prisons. What happened on the 24/25 May flight to Nigeria and Ghana?

Inquest jury finds failures in detainee healthcare

Phil Miller 27 May 2016

An MRI brain scan that was wrongly cancelled might have led to life-saving treatment for Bruno Dos Santos, who died aged 25 in the care of UK immigration authorities.

Cancelled brain scan could have saved UK immigration detainee

Phil Miller 26 May 2016

Inquest, Day Four: Neurologist testifies that he might have saved 25 year old Bruno Dos Santos. 

Private healthcare company Care UK cancelled immigration detainee’s brain scan

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 26 May 2016

Jury hears that HMP Thameside staff didn’t know the rules concerning hospital appointments. Bruno Dos Santos Inquest, Day Three. 

G4S promises (again) to repaint asylum seeker red doors and relocate families at risk

John Grayson 25 May 2016

Four months after 'red doors' scandal broke, security company says it really will stop making asylum seekers’ homes so easy to locate and attack.

Doubts over cause of death of man, 25, at remote UK immigration lockup

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 24 May 2016

Day Two of the inquest into the death of Bruno Dos Santos.

Medicines untaken, appointments missed by young man who died at immigration lockup

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 23 May 2016

Jury hears of ‘chaotic’ and ‘stressful time’ at the Verne immigration removal centre. Day One of the inquest into the death of Bruno Dos Santos.

G4S suspends 5 staff over alleged attempts to massage 999 response figures

Clare Sambrook 23 May 2016

Commercial partners G4S and Lincolnshire Police are jointly investigating fake emergency calls that made outsourcing look good.

Asylum seekers with red doors are still being targeted by racists

John Grayson 22 May 2016

Regardless of government orders and promises to Parliament, UK property company Jomast carries on putting asylum tenants at risk.

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