London launch of the report Migrant Detention in the European Union: A Thriving Business Outsourcing and privatization of migrant detention

6pm, Tuesday 28th March at Praxis, Pott Street, London E2 0EF

In the UK, corporations like G4S, Serco, Mitie and Capita make millions locking up migrants in privately run detention centres. Many other less known companies also jostle for contracts in the detention industry, for example providing healthcare, cleaning or construction services. Britain is a pioneer in detention outsourcing, hurtling towards the model of the massive US private prison industry.

But detention outsourcing is also taking off across Europe. This meeting will present a new research report by Migreurop, the European and African migration network, which maps the rise of the privatised migration detention business across the European Union.

For example, in Italy, where the ’Mafia Capitale’ scandal revealed the hold of mafia networks on the Italian detention market; and in France, where a construction company hired undocumented migrant workers to build a detention centre that would later hold the very same migrants. The report analyses the impact of this trend on migrants, and on our politics and society in general.

After a presentation of the report by Migreurop, there will be short contributions on recent UK developments by Corporate Watch and the Institute for Race Relations (IRR), two organisations which have consistently analysed and exposed the detention industry in the UK, a report about G4S and asylum seekers accommodation by South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and one on private health “care” in detention by the Detention Monitoring Group.

The evening will conclude with an open forum for researchers and campaigners to come together, make links across borders and plans for the future.

6pm, Tuesday 28th March
Praxis, Pott Street, London E2 0EF (round corner from Bethnal Green underground, buses 8, 106, 254, 388; easy access and toilet facilities for wheelchair users and pushchairs)

Organisers: Migreurop, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Campaign to Close Campsfield, Corporate Watch, Statewatch

Download the full report here.