Home affairs select committee finds evidence of dangerous restraint techniques, although UK Border Agency denies claim
Unauthorised, potentially lethal restraint techniques may still be being used to carry out immigration deportations despite assurances from the UK Border Agency and its private contractors, MPs warn.
A Commons home affairs select committee inquiry into the treatment of people being deported also found evidence of a racist culture among private security escort staff and a "too cosy relationship" between UKBA and its private contractors.
The MPs' inquiry followed the death of Jimmy Mubenga while he was being deported from Heathrow to Angola in 2010. Three G4S security guards escorting him were arrested and are still under police investigation.
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said serious questions remained over the use of contractors in removals and deportations since Reliance took over from G4S following the death of Mubenga.
The report published on Thursday said the Home Office needed to issue urgent guidance on the danger of unauthorised restraint techniques that involve bending somebody's head forward while they are in an aircraft seat. "We are not persuaded that head-down restraint positions are never used, even though they are not authorised," it said, adding that Home Office research was needed into restraint techniques suitable for on an aircraft.
Both UKBA and the contractors denied that any techniques to hold the neck or keep the head down were used. A UKBA spokesperson said: "Where someone is found to have no right to be in the UK we would prefer they left voluntarily, where they do not we will enforce their removal.
"On the vast majority of flights no restraint is needed. Escorts only use restraint in the face of serious violence and disruption by those being returned.
"The UK Border Agency has already implemented the majority of recommendations within the report."
However, the MPs said that a report by Lady O'Loan, entitled Outsourcing Abuse, documented several incidents in which detainees claimed to have been restrained with their heads held down.
"It is difficult to believe that all these accounts are complete fabrications," said the MPs.
They also called for an immediate halt to the practice of taking deportees from removal centres to airports as "reserves" in case somebody was taken off a flight at the last minute.
They said some staff audibly used highly offensive language, with one senior officer using terms including "gippos", "pikeys" and "typical Asians".
The MPs added that they were shocked to find private security escorts used racist language in front of UKBA staff and official prison inspectors. "It is possibly the result of a relationship between the agency and its contractors which had become too cosy," said their report.
Vaz said he was disappointed there had been little progress in the police investigation into Mubenga's death. "The UKBA must not wash its hands for responsibility for detainees just because the service is contracted out," said Vaz. "The agency must introduce much tougher management processes to ensure that contractors are delivering the service that the public expect, and that senior management challenge unacceptable behaviour."
Mubenga's widow, Adrienne Makenda Kambana, said: "I am still waiting for justice. Nothing can bring my husband back now but the system must change to stop this happening to anyone else. I hope the government will listen to what the committee has said and help others."
Deborah Coles of Inquest, which represents the families of those that die in state custody, said she welcomed the parliamentary recognition that restraint during enforced removals was dangerous, unauthorised and potentially lethal.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/26/deportation-techniques-mps-warn
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