Sickening violence by staff at 'toxic' detention centre near Gatwick

19 September 2023 , 12:05

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A damning report has lifted the lid on the "toxic" culture at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport (Image: PA)

Asylum seekers were violently abused in "prison-like" conditions at a detention centre where it was "common" for staff to use racist language, a damning report found.

An inquiry found workers repeatedly said "if he dies, he dies" to taunt detainees, with staff "too quick to employ force" at Brook House immigration removal centre (IRC) close to Gatwick Airport.

It found 19 instances of mistreatment in 2017 following sickening undercover footage of violence broadcast by BBC Panorama. In one case a detention custody officer put his hands around a detainee's neck and called him a "f****** piece of s***" and said: "I'm going to put you to f***** sleep."

Staff would often use "racist and derogatory" language and abusive behaviour was often dismissed as "banter", inquiry chairwoman Kate Eves said. A bombshell report ruled the centre was "not sufficiently decent, secure or caring for detained people or its staff". In other cases men were forcibly moved when naked or near-naked.

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The inquiry was launched by former Home Secretary Priti Patel in 2019 (Getty Images)

And there was another case where staff initially "stood and looked" at a detainee who had been found unconscious having attempted to self-harm "without trying to help him".

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An inquiry was launched in 2019 by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, two years after the BBC programme was broadcast. The 19 instances examined by the inquiry took place between April and August 2017, but Ms Eves said she has ongoing concerns about the centre.

Ten members of staff were dismissed or resigned in the wake of the broadcast. No prosecutions were brought after a police investigation, but two former detainees successfully argued a full independent investigation was needed.

Contractor G4S - which ran the centre at the time - has since been replaced with outsourcing giant Serco. Ms Eves said: "Under the Home Office and its contractor, G4S, Brook House was not sufficiently decent, secure or caring for detained people or its staff at the time these events took place.

"An environment flourished in which unacceptable treatment became more likely." She said she "rejected the narrative portrayed by both the Home Office and G4S in their evidence that the events at Brook House were primarily the result of a small minority of G4S staff".

She said this claim "seeks to distance both organisations from their responsibility for the prevailing culture at the the time". But she rejected calls by those who were detained at Brook House for it to be shut down.

Among 33 recommendations, the chairwoman said the Government should introduce a time limit of 28 days maximum for a person to be held at an IRC. She described the environment at Brook House as "harsh" and "prison-like", saying it was "entirely unsuitable for detaining people for anything other than a short period of time".

The report noted that in July 2017, the average stay at the centre was 44 days, but five people had been there for between one and two years. The chairwoman recommended that "new comprehensive and mandatory rules for how force is used in IRCs is urgently needed".

Ms Eves called on the Home Office to pay "more than mere lip service" to her findings, noting a "dark thread" running throughout her report of a failure to act on previous recommendations. She warned that, with the Government having made clear its intention to expand the use of immigration detention, "any expansion or other change should be considered in the context of learning lessons from past failures".

Concluding her report, she added: "Many of the safeguards designed to protect vulnerable detained people failed at Brook House during the relevant period and I remain concerned about how those safeguards are operating currently."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The abuse that took place at Brook House in 2017 was unacceptable. The government has made significant improvements since then to uphold the welfare and dignity of those detained including strengthening safeguards, promoting a culture of transparency and improving the oversight of contractors’ performance. We remain committed to ensuring safety and security in all Immigration Removal Centres and to learn lessons from Brook House to ensure these events never happen again. We thank the Chair and Inquiry team for their report and are carefully considering every recommendation.”