Harmondsworth IRC

Harmondsworth IRC is an immigration removal centre.

Introduction

It was run by Burns International from 1999 to 2001, before Sodexho subsidiary UK Detention Services (UKDS) started an eight year contract worth £180m in 2001 (In 2006 UKDS was rebranded as Kalyx). The Geo Group UK ran Harmondsworth from June 2009 until September 2014 when it was taken over by Mitie Care and Custody and 'merged' with Colnbrook IRC to form what is sometimes called Heathrow IRC.

List of centre managers

• Joanne Henney from June 2009 to November 2012
• Alan Hunt from December 2012 to December 2013
• Paul Morrison from September 2014

UK Detention Services 2001-2006

Sodexho-subsidiary UKDS started running Harmondsworth in 2001. It held 550 people, including children as young as 4 years old.

It was alleged at the time of commencing the contract that Sodexho planned for asylum-seekers at Harmondsworth to work for almost nothing so that the company could cut its operating costs. A Home Office document obtained by the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, showed that the Government intended to suspend the minimum wage at Harmondsworth so that Sodexho could pay asylum seekers £12 a week, which works out at 34p an hour (92% below the minimum wage) to do the work of painters, cleaners and caterers. If they refused work but complied with an 'agreed activity programme', they would be paid £6. If they refused to cooperate at all, they would be given £4 for cleaning their rooms. The scheme did not proceed at that time.

On February 22, 2002, The London Times reported that nine detainees escaped from Harmondsworth, breaking a window, scaling a 15’ fence and using towels to get over the razor wire surrounding the facility.

In a report that came out in March 2003, the prisons inspectorate expressed “deep concern” about detainees with mental health problems being held at Harmondsworth.

An inspection of Harmondsworth made by the Chief Inspector of Prisons in September 2003 said that:

"There were increasing levels of disorder, damage and escape attempts, with an average of seven assaults a week. In spite of an average of one self-harm incident a week, suicide, self-harm and anti-bullying procedures were not effectively managed. Nor was there sufficient mental health support for detainees held in the in-patient ward.”

In conclusion, the report stated: “Harmondsworth, when we inspected it, did not meet three of our four tests for a healthy custodial environment.”

A recent inquest into the death of Ukrainian asylum seeker Sergey Baranyuk provided a glimpse of how asylum seekers are treated behind the closed doors of removal centres in the UK – detained, forgotten and slowly driven to despair.

In July 2004, a Ukrainian asylum-seeker Sergey Baranyuk was found hanged in a shower room at Harmondsworth. His death sparked a night of disturbances at the centre and all of the detainees were transferred out of the damaged centre.

Kalyx 2006-2009

In October 2006, Sodexho changed the name of UK Detention Services to Kalyx.

In November 2006, a major riot took place at Harmondsworth, after the chief inspector of prisons issued her "poorest ever" report on a detention centre.

In December 2006, Kalyx was fined £5,096,000 by the Home Office for performance failures

"Neither Kalyx nor the Home Office would be drawn on why the company has had to pay such a sizeable sum. But [Home Office minister Baroness] Scotland suggested it was at least partly to do with the company's failure to manage the centre properly.

She told the Lords that 'rigorous attempts to manage the situation in Harmondsworth' had now been put in place. 'That was the basis of the concerns expressed and of the disagreement... between management,' Scotland said. ... A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed Kalyx would soon be paying out. 'The Immigration and Nationality Directorate has been in dispute with HDSL (a subsidiary of Kalyx) over its contractual performance at Harmondsworth,' the spokeswoman said. 'The dispute reached mediation point in summer 2006 and reached an agreed settlement; the details of this are being finalised by lawyers with full completion anticipated by the end of this month.'"