Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets Panorama


Undercover: Britain's Immigration Secrets

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Transcript


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This programme contains strong language from the start

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and scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.

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My name's Callum Tulley. Two years ago I was just another lad

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trying to work out what to do with the rest of my life.

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SHOUTING AND WHISTLING

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Oi, lads, lads. Oi, get off him.

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Then I got a job here. At a place you've probably never heard of.

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Brook House.

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It's an immigration removal centre, although it looks and feels

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more like a prison.

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I thought I'd be helping people facing deportation.

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They're here to help you.

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'But I couldn't have been more wrong.'

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MAN SOBS

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From the start, I was confronted with

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drug abuse, self-harm and suicide attempts.

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I saw some foreign criminals,

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fresh out of prison, terrorising

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asylum seekers who had never been inside.

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And I saw some staff abusing men locked up here.

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I didn't complain. I didn't think anyone would listen.

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Instead, I put on secret cameras for the BBC.

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I'm so angry. I don't know how people can

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get away with things like that.

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This is my story of life on the front line

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of the UK's fight to control immigration.

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HE SOBS

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I never intended to be an undercover reporter.

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All I've ever wanted to be is a football referee.

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No, this way...

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But straight out of school - I needed a job.

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Me and my mum were looking for jobs at home and she spotted

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a vacancy available at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre.

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Went for the job and got it.

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I became a detainee custody officer

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and Brook House, tucked away behind Gatwick Airport,

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was a different world.

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I was literally just a normal 18-year-old and after a few months

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of working within the centre, I witnessed some things that probably

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most 18-year-olds wouldn't have witnessed.

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Just experienced a complete toxic atmosphere.

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It's changed me from being a young naive boy,

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not really much understanding of human suffering, into someone who

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just witnesses it first-hand

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and in probably some of the most horrific ways.

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SHOUTING AND SWEARING

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A year into the job, I told the BBC what I'd seen

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and became a whistle-blower.

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SHOUTING AND BANGING

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Brook House is built like a prison and holds around 500 male detainees.

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More than half are seeking asylum or have overstayed visas.

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The others are foreign criminals

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transferred here after finishing prison sentences.

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Trouble can erupt in seconds...

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..over the smallest thing.

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The men here all face being removed or deported by the Home Office.

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Most don't know how long they'll have to stay.

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You've got hardline criminals who've committed some really serious

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offences and then you've got people in there who have come over from

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places like Sudan, Syria and

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Eritrea, who are seeking asylum in the country.

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How are you?

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They can all be locked up together across the five wings...

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Just got to relax, yeah? Don't panic.

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..because the Home Office doesn't insist on segregation.

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The contrast between

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the asylum seekers and the migrants to the hardline criminals...

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They do swarm like sharks around small fish.

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They just get eaten alive. Just snapped up like that.

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LAUGHTER

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In Brook House, you can be put with any criminal in the same room.

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Guys were, like, fighting with each other. Banging their doors.

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Screaming and shouting and swearing.

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And you can't do anything, just stay inside your room.

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Alif Jan has been detained three times

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since his student visa ran out.

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He's now living in Birmingham, applying for asylum.

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He was a doctor in Pakistan.

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And he was working as a trainee audiologist at a hospital in London.

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I felt like I'm a criminal without any crime.

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Your mind is thinking,

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"What will happen to me?

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"What will be the outcome?" And - why I'm here.

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SHOUTING

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It shouldn't be like this. The rules governing removal centres say

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they should provide secure but humane accommodation,

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in a relaxed, safe environment.

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At Brook House, which is managed for the government

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by the multinational company G4S,

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detainees are let down right from the start.

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On the first night, it feels to me like someone is coming

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to kill me. I couldn't sleep.

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My sleep was disturbed throughout the night.

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The induction is in B wing, where detainees spend

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the first few nights in Brook House.

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They can be some of the toughest times for new detainees, especially

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if they've never spent any time in prison before.

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The induction wing is supposed

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to help detainees adapt to life inside.

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Instead, they're confronted by drugs...

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..and violent ex-offenders.

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A quick look at the list of detainees on the wing

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shows exactly what's going wrong.

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He was plucking out each card of

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detainees that were involved in the drug and gang culture of Brook House

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and he picked out at least eight detainees.

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Then, what? Then, what? Then, what, big man?

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Drug dealers and new arrivals all mixed up together.

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Some of my fellow officers asked management to move the drug dealers

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off the induction wing,

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but when I check a month later, more dealers have arrived.

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G4S says, with the knowledge of the Home Office, the induction wing is

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used, when required, to hold detainees from other wings.

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Drugs are everywhere in Brook House, not just on the induction wing.

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HE WAILS

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HE WAILS AND SOBS

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Spice, the chemical alternative to cannabis, is the drug of choice.

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It's cheap and can be deadly.

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There's a Spice epidemic in Brook House right now.

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I'm just sick of seeing

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this stuff all the time now. I've been seeing this shit for the last

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two years, just constantly.

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So frustrating to watch, when you're

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watching it week after week.

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I don't have any hope.

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We see only worried faces every day.

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For detainees who don't take drugs,

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it just adds to the fear of detention.

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Harshad Purohit was a student and care worker in the UK

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and was detained after his visa ran out.

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He's very timid. He's extremely polite.

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I just want to go up, put my arm round him and tell him

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it's going to be fine, even though I don't really know that it will be.

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He's now back in India.

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He was removed from the UK after nine months in detention.

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In Brook House,

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there too much stress and taking drugs.

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I have seen so many

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people there, they are suffering the health problems with Spice.

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There's the effect of drugs.

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They can do anything. They're going too crazy.

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These drugs are banned and I just don't understand it's selling

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in this Brook House.

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One officer tells me drugs are coming in through the visits hall.

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She says many officers aren't taking it seriously.

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G4S says it has a range of measures to monitor the visits hall and has

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an extensive training programme

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to deal with new psychoactive substances like Spice.

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Staff seem overstretched.

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Hello.

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The wings are often run with the minimum number of officers

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allowed by the Home Office.

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The general morale among officers is pretty poor.

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There's often two officers just left to one wing,

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got to deal with over 100 detainees.

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It affects the detainees massively

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because there's just not enough staff.

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And as a result, things are rushed.

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Roll count is called incorrect.

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This causes the detainees to be unlocked from their cells

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late, more time in their cells.

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And it just adds to what is already a very hostile environment.

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All the detainees were eventually accounted for.

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HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

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In Brook House, if you

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are, like, a nice person, very cool-minded,

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you will become aggressive

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because you are facing aggressive things most of the time.

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Shut up!

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The behaviour of the guys there...

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And the behaviour of the staff there...

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These are the two worst things.

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This is one of my bosses, detainee custody manager Nathan Ring.

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MAN WAILS AND CHANTS

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An Iranian detainee is out of it on Spice.

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MAN CHANTS

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It's a medical response

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and my manager should be taking it seriously.

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CHANTING CONTINUES

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LAUGHTER

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Nathan makes these situations a lot worse. He encourages staff to laugh,

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he leads the way with the taunts and the mocking.

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Some of the officers and managers, I don't know if that is their way of

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coping with the bleakness of Brook House or if it's because they hate

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the detainees and don't care what sort of state they're in.

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I hear about a new arrival who officers think was forced to test

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a batch of Spice by his roommate.

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This is the roommate.

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He has a reputation for violence.

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This is the suspected drugs guinea pig.

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I'm told his passport says he is 18.

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G4S guidelines say the company's duty director and the Home Office

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must be told by staff if a detainee claims they are under 18.

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After nearly two weeks at Brook House, the boy is removed

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into the care of social services.

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The psalms could be seen as a critique of

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institutions that just don't listen.

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Move forward a few thousand years and what's changed?

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Nathan Ward became a priest two years ago.

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He used to be a senior manager for G4S.

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The Lord be with you.

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I show him my footage.

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What you have there is a child in an adult prison,

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to all intents and purposes.

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We stopped doing that... erm, gosh, over 100 years ago.

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One of the detainees allegedly was used as a guinea pig to test Spice.

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This is...child abuse, isn't it?

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When Nathan Ward worked for the company, he wrote

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guidelines on how to deal with

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detainees suspected of being under 18.

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Everyone has failed in this circumstance. The immigration

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officer picking him up - because the policy is very clear, that if they

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suspect him to be under 18, they need to take action at that point.

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The reception need to take action, who admit him into the centre,

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the staff on the wings need to take action,

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the Home Office needs to take action.

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Everyone has failed this child.

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The Home Office says his age

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is in dispute, so policy on handling these cases hasn't been breached.

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G4S says it can't comment on specific cases

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but any age concerns are raised with the Home Office and social services.

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Mate! What's that about?

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Three years ago, Nathan Ward raised concerns about the behaviour

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of some staff at Brook House

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with the managing director for G4S Detention Services.

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The vast majority were good, decent people

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but there was a group that actually concerned me,

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on their relationships with detainees.

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It was around language that they used,

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a sense of roughness and the use of force,

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how force was used.

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Body of Christ keep you in eternal life.

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After working for G4S for nearly 13 years,

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he resigned in 2014.

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I left working there because, to all intents and purposes,

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I couldn't cope with it any more, it's as simple as that.

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This detainee, who we're calling Abbas, is 20 years old

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and originally from Egypt.

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He's just been transferred from prison.

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I'm told he has a conviction for assault.

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He's on suicide watch after trying to self-harm.

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An officer called Calvin is sitting in his room.

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CCTV cameras monitor Brook House but not inside detainees' rooms.

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Calvin later tells me what he got up to when no-one was watching.

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He's telling me how he banged the detainee's head

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and bent his fingers back.

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Calvin just openly confessed to assaulting detainees, in front of

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officers. And it is so commonplace that it doesn't get challenged,

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no-one really bats an eyelid.

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LAUGHTER

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This officer, hoping Abbas will swing, later told Panorama

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he denies any wrongdoing.

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Across the UK, there are 11 immigration removal centres,

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which every year detain around 30,000 people.

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The majority for less

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than 28 days, but last year

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more than 200 people were held for over a year.

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The immigration centres were originally designed as

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merely short-term holding centres.

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Unfortunately the procedures have got so longwinded,

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and the Home Office cannot get down to a quick day-to-day processing,

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and as a result people are held in these centres for months and years.

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G4S has been paid more than £100 million by the Home Office

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to run Brook House, since it opened in 2009.

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Back then, it was only meant to hold detainees for up to 72 hours.

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I've met detainees who have been detained for years.

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It can be desperate.

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I thought, I'm going to get deported straightaway when my

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sentence get finished.

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People start telling me, I may get transferred to the detention centre.

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Mustapha Zitouni came to the UK on a false passport and was

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transferred to Brook House after finishing a prison sentence for

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theft, assault and possessing drugs.

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He was deported back to Algeria three months ago.

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The detention was worse than prison. In detention centre,

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you never know how long you are going to be - one day,

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one year, or three or four years.

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It is the waiting game,

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the worst, the killer,

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the waiting game, man.

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That's what they do in detention.

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He waited for 11 months

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before being told to get ready to leave.

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I was really happy, I was

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really happy, I prepare everything.

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My flight was seven o'clock in the morning.

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It is seven, they came to me,

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"Oh, sorry, your flight has been cancelled

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"because the Algerian embassy did not provide the travel document."

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I was expected to get free that day and see my people and my family.

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Now I have to go and protest.

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I filmed him staging his protest on netting

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designed to prevent suicides.

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He thought he was going home.

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He has razor blades.

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A lot of people had sympathy for this guy because he's happy to go

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back. He's on the netting and he's protesting. He's got razor blades

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and is a risk to staff and himself.

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Staff aren't allowed on the netting

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unless a detainee is in immediate danger.

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A specialist team, called the Nationals,

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is called in to get him down.

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They used a spray to subdue him.

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The next day, Mustapha is calmer but still frustrated.

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Yeah, I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying.

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Mustapha had expected to be deported as soon as he finished his sentence.

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Deportation straight from prison

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was suggested to the Home Office nearly 20 years ago.

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I recommended when anyone was sentenced to be deported,

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that that deportation should be processed while they were in prison,

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so that at the end of their prison sentence

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they were taken straight to the airport and out.

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It could be done, if ministers had willed it to be done.

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It's common sense.

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While Mustapha was on the netting,

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Brook House staff were on stand-by, ready to deal with him.

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G4S restraint trainer John is supervising.

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When I ask him for advice, he tells me to use racist language.

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We wait in a stairwell for several hours.

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One of the officers said,

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"You shouldn't be able to get away with this."

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And that was when John Connolly just went off on one.

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John was saying that if this detainee

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wasn't going to go voluntarily,

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that we drag him into this corner and we'd fuck him up.

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We don't get called in. I'm relieved they don't get the chance

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to attack Mustapha.

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Mustapha has travelled across the border from Algeria to Tunisia.

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He's agreed to meet a BBC crew.

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He doesn't know I've come to show him my undercover footage.

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-Mustapha?

-Yes?

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Hey, hey, you are fucking joking!

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LAUGHTER

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-How are you doing?

-What are you doing here?

-I've come to see you.

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Oh, fuck. This is not G4S.

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-No, not G4S.

-How are you doing, man?

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-Good to see you.

-Yeah, man.

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-So, erm, when I was in Brook House...

-Yeah.

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..I was wearing secret cameras, I was wearing hidden cameras.

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Unbelievable, man!

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-I remember you with suit track...

-Yeah, tracksuits.

-Tracksuit and,

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"You guys, you want to come to the gym, yes?"

0:30:440:30:46

LAUGHTER

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-It's good to see you.

-Good to see you too, man.

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After you...

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How does it make you feel knowing

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that whilst you were protesting on the netting...?

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It's not surprising anyway, you know,

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I had that shit, you know, face-to-face.

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They say it in front of me, you know what I mean?

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They treat us as animals.

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They have to watch those officers and what they're doing.

0:31:150:31:18

You know what I mean?

0:31:180:31:19

Not, like, just let them do what they want.

0:31:190:31:22

I don't want to remember that shit, man.

0:31:310:31:33

I'm lucky I'm free, man, and I feel

0:31:330:31:36

sorry for guys in detentions.

0:31:360:31:37

We're getting kitted up in riot gear

0:31:440:31:46

for a deportation. The detainee doesn't want to go.

0:31:460:31:49

I was going to be the shield officer. The person who is first in

0:32:030:32:07

the cell during a restraint, he has the riot shield in hand

0:32:070:32:10

and he places it onto the detainee if necessary.

0:32:100:32:13

The detainee has a history of violence and a conviction

0:32:150:32:18

for attempted murder. But I'm also worried about his health.

0:32:180:32:22

Just to make me that little bit more nervous,

0:32:220:32:24

I was told that this detainee had a number of operations

0:32:240:32:27

on his heart. He had suffered from a heart attack in the past.

0:32:270:32:30

Two experienced officers, called Dave and Yan, are less concerned.

0:32:300:32:34

One officer said, "If he dies, he dies."

0:32:450:32:48

I didn't want to kill this guy,

0:32:480:32:49

I didn't want to harm this man.

0:32:490:32:51

I just wanted to go in there and do the job.

0:32:510:32:53

DETAINEE WAILS

0:33:120:33:16

He's desperate not to be deported back to Romania.

0:33:160:33:18

Such a stressful environment to be in

0:33:220:33:24

because you never know what could happen.

0:33:240:33:26

You fear the worst in that situation.

0:33:260:33:28

I thought then that was the end of it. We'd seen the back of this guy.

0:33:460:33:50

And I didn't have to worry about seeing him again. But I was wrong.

0:33:500:33:55

Later that day, I see him in the visitor area.

0:33:570:34:00

That's him with his back to me.

0:34:000:34:02

I met other detainees in Brook House who can't be deported because

0:34:260:34:30

they're challenging Home Office attempts to make them leave.

0:34:300:34:34

It can take a long time.

0:34:340:34:36

Some of their cases are difficult to resolve.

0:34:360:34:38

This detainee, who we're calling Paul, came to the UK when he was six

0:34:530:34:56

and doesn't want to be deported to Somalia, where he was born.

0:34:560:35:00

His permission to stay in the UK was revoked when he was convicted

0:35:100:35:14

of burglary and drug offences.

0:35:140:35:15

The UK is the only country in the European Union

0:35:330:35:36

which doesn't put a specific time limit on immigration detention.

0:35:360:35:39

Some people are being held for years.

0:35:420:35:44

Should there be an end?

0:35:440:35:46

Yes, for everyone. I mean, it's

0:35:460:35:49

either staying here or going home. There's got to be an end. You can't

0:35:490:35:53

keep people in detention forever.

0:35:530:35:55

-You getting your hair cut?

-No!

0:36:000:36:02

All detainees can apply for bail,

0:36:030:36:05

so they can fight their cases outside detention.

0:36:050:36:08

The remaining detainee with heart problems, who wasn't deported,

0:36:090:36:12

has a hearing tomorrow.

0:36:120:36:13

Two days later, I go to his room.

0:36:220:36:25

Oh, jeez. Oh, my days.

0:36:250:36:27

-Oh, look at his clothes!

-Yeah, I know.

0:36:300:36:32

I went into this cell...

0:36:330:36:35

and there was blood all over the floor,

0:36:350:36:38

over the bedsheets, over the shower curtains.

0:36:380:36:41

In the corner of his room, there was just blood-soaked clothes

0:36:410:36:44

just lying there.

0:36:440:36:46

His bail application had been refused.

0:36:460:36:49

Really?

0:36:500:36:52

No way?

0:36:580:36:59

What?

0:37:000:37:02

I speak to the detainee after he comes out of hospital.

0:37:150:37:17

Stick your arm out, let me see, let me see.

0:37:240:37:27

Shit.

0:37:280:37:29

Oh, jeez.

0:37:310:37:32

He's committed some horrific crimes, he isn't a nice guy,

0:37:420:37:46

but we're in a situation where staff are literally having

0:37:460:37:48

to drag him to an airport, where he ends up coming back from anyway.

0:37:480:37:54

He applies for bail, he self-harms.

0:37:540:37:57

It's twisting him up on the way,

0:37:570:37:59

staff are becoming disturbed as a result of his actions.

0:37:590:38:02

Paul, the detainee who was born in Somalia,

0:38:030:38:05

has just been told he's about to be transferred

0:38:050:38:08

to another removal centre.

0:38:080:38:09

He snaps.

0:38:100:38:11

Staff rush him.

0:38:240:38:25

He's moved later the same day.

0:38:300:38:32

I don't know what will happen to him.

0:38:320:38:34

Want to take a seat?

0:38:340:38:35

I show my footage to a psychiatrist, who's a leading specialist

0:38:400:38:43

in the effects of detention.

0:38:430:38:45

It's, from a clinical point of view, not at all surprising that

0:38:470:38:51

this man is enormously distressed by the length and indefiniteness

0:38:510:38:57

of his detention. The chances of not being adversely affected

0:38:570:39:03

mentally by prolonged and indefinite detention are very low.

0:39:030:39:08

At Brook House last year, there were 53 cases of detainees

0:39:110:39:15

needing medical treatment for self-harm.

0:39:150:39:17

There are another 451 who are detainees judged to be at risk

0:39:190:39:23

of hurting themselves.

0:39:230:39:24

Detainees very often talk about that notion of being somewhere

0:39:250:39:30

where you are confined, where you have very little control,

0:39:300:39:35

very little choice over anything, over what happens in your day.

0:39:350:39:38

That lack of control, I think, is an important part of the distress

0:39:380:39:44

that leads to worsening mental health.

0:39:440:39:47

It's lunchtime.

0:39:510:39:53

I have to make sure all the detainees have eaten.

0:39:530:39:56

I have a checklist to tick.

0:39:560:39:57

This detainee hadn't eaten his lunch, so I went to his room

0:39:590:40:02

to ask him, you know, "Why haven't you eaten?"

0:40:020:40:05

He was refusing to eat because he wasn't happy about

0:40:130:40:18

being in Brook House.

0:40:180:40:20

Refusing food is one way the men at Brook House protest

0:40:210:40:24

about their detention.

0:40:240:40:26

Last year, 316 cases were recorded.

0:40:260:40:30

I think it could be more than that.

0:40:300:40:32

I'm on duty again with detainee custody manager Nathan Ring.

0:40:370:40:41

I tell him the detainee won't eat.

0:40:420:40:44

He tells me to say the man has eaten, when he hasn't.

0:40:560:40:59

The recording of food refusal ought to be

0:41:000:41:03

the start of finding out a bit more.

0:41:030:41:06

It's extremely serious because food refusal may be indicative of

0:41:060:41:11

poor mental health and it may cause deteriorating physical health,

0:41:110:41:16

in extreme form, even be fatal.

0:41:160:41:18

Later, I'm still worried, so I raise it again.

0:41:200:41:22

I think with a lot of officers, you do see them become desensitised.

0:41:390:41:44

Because it just becomes the norm.

0:41:440:41:46

It's something you do and you witness every single day at work.

0:41:460:41:51

People can't cope and hand in their notice, but others,

0:41:510:41:55

they do become immune to the pain and suffering that they see,

0:41:550:41:58

and then some actually turn to the other side

0:41:580:42:02

and actually take part in the abuse.

0:42:020:42:04

An officer is shouting at a detainee who has mental health problems.

0:42:140:42:17

This is E wing, where vulnerable detainees can be held in rooms

0:42:210:42:24

on their own. They should be closely monitored and given support.

0:42:240:42:28

The detainee is so ill that he was taken to a psychiatric hospital

0:42:440:42:47

two days later and sectioned.

0:42:470:42:50

The Home Office says, "Policies introduced last year

0:42:500:42:53

"strengthen the presumption against detention for particularly

0:42:530:42:56

"vulnerable people, whilst improving the diagnosis and treatment

0:42:560:42:59

"of mental health conditions."

0:42:590:43:01

The detainee who's shouting is on medication

0:43:120:43:14

and has threatened to harm himself.

0:43:140:43:15

It's a stressful situation.

0:43:170:43:18

Oh, fuck's sake, man.

0:43:190:43:21

But that's no excuse for how the officers treat him.

0:43:270:43:29

The people behaving in this way seem to be attributing

0:43:450:43:48

his behaviour to wanting to annoy them, rather than entertaining

0:43:480:43:53

the possibility that it might be

0:43:530:43:55

because of the underlying mental illness.

0:43:550:43:57

They are going to punish him, they're going to show their contempt

0:44:010:44:05

for him. That is extremely bad for anyone, but it's even worse

0:44:050:44:11

for someone that they know is mentally ill.

0:44:110:44:13

There's an emergency on A wing.

0:44:210:44:24

A detainee's tried to kill himself.

0:44:240:44:26

Seeing things like this is upsetting for detainees and officers.

0:45:120:45:15

The first attempted suicide I was called to stays with me to this day.

0:45:160:45:20

I went to bed that night and didn't sleep.

0:45:220:45:25

And then nightmares start to happen, it replays back in your mind.

0:45:250:45:30

I was signed off with a stress-related disorder

0:45:300:45:33

for about two and a half weeks.

0:45:330:45:35

When you know you're a cog in the machine that has made

0:45:360:45:41

him feel that level of desperation, the impact that you're having

0:45:410:45:44

on the lives of these people...

0:45:440:45:46

..it is difficult.

0:45:470:45:49

Yeah.

0:45:530:45:54

I'm back on E wing, where vulnerable detainees can be held.

0:46:010:46:04

I see Abbas, the 20-year-old Egyptian

0:46:070:46:09

who an officer told me earlier he'd abused.

0:46:090:46:12

He's got something round his neck.

0:46:210:46:23

ABBAS GULPS AND STRUGGLES FOR BREATH

0:46:260:46:28

That sound is Abbas choking.

0:46:280:46:30

Get down, mate, get down.

0:46:350:46:37

It's a mobile phone battery.

0:47:130:47:15

Detainee custody manager Nathan Ring is on scene.

0:47:220:47:26

Another opportunity to mock a detainee.

0:47:290:47:31

This nurse has also been called in.

0:47:410:47:42

Along with detainee custody officer, Yan Paschali.

0:47:510:47:54

Manager Nathan Ring leaves me to watch Abbas.

0:48:050:48:08

What happens next is the most distressing treatment of a detainee

0:48:090:48:13

I see during my time undercover at Brook House.

0:48:130:48:16

He's trying to strangle himself with his hands.

0:48:310:48:34

Don't do it, don't do it, mate!

0:48:420:48:44

Yan comes in to help and holds his head to my left.

0:48:450:48:50

ABBAS BREATHES HEAVILY

0:48:500:48:53

ABBAS SCREAMS

0:48:580:48:59

Relax!

0:48:590:49:01

Yan basically stuck both of his fingers into his neck

0:49:080:49:12

and he was pushing so, so hard, I could hear the detainee

0:49:120:49:14

trying to gasp for breath.

0:49:140:49:16

ABBAS WHIMPERS

0:49:170:49:20

I actually thought Yan was going to kill him.

0:49:200:49:22

I said to Yan, "Yan, easy, easy."

0:49:220:49:24

ABBAS SCREAMS

0:49:390:49:42

After the violence, more mocking.

0:49:460:49:50

ABBAS CRIES HYSTERICALLY

0:49:500:49:52

Other officers monitor him. I'd seen enough.

0:50:050:50:07

Just angry.

0:50:150:50:16

HE SOBS

0:50:240:50:26

So angry.

0:50:300:50:32

Just that place is...

0:50:460:50:47

I don't know how people can get away with things like that.

0:50:500:50:52

HE SOBS

0:50:550:50:56

You've got in one sense a perfect storm here, haven't you?

0:51:080:51:12

You've got a physical restraint going on,

0:51:120:51:15

which is dangerous in itself,

0:51:150:51:18

you've got a nurse who just thinks the man is an arse

0:51:180:51:21

and you've got a member of staff strangling him.

0:51:210:51:25

The risk of life is enormous. I feel sickened by it.

0:51:250:51:29

People should serve a prison sentence

0:51:300:51:32

for what they're doing there.

0:51:320:51:34

If I hadn't been filming,

0:51:360:51:38

it's possible no-one would know what had happened to Abbas.

0:51:380:51:40

C&R is control and restraint and involves the permitted use of force.

0:51:490:51:52

Home Office rules say the use of force should be documented, but Yan,

0:51:590:52:04

the officer who could have killed Abbas, doesn't want that to happen.

0:52:040:52:07

Even the nurse appears to be going along with it.

0:52:160:52:18

She's reading from her notes but mentions nothing about

0:52:300:52:33

the restraint, even though she'd been in the room when it happened.

0:52:330:52:36

Later, in the staff room, Yan tells me I need to toughen up.

0:52:430:52:46

Yan Paschali later told Panorama he couldn't think of anything

0:53:080:53:12

he'd done that would get him into any trouble.

0:53:120:53:14

It's too simple just to look at the individuals.

0:53:170:53:21

Even though their actions are deplorable,

0:53:210:53:24

we'd need to look at the people that have put these people in place

0:53:240:53:28

and allowed them to do what they've done.

0:53:280:53:30

I blame the Home Office for allowing G4S to get away with these excesses.

0:53:310:53:37

People have got to work out what is needed

0:53:370:53:40

to put a system in place

0:53:400:53:42

which really can be A, humane,

0:53:420:53:45

B, decent, and C, quick.

0:53:450:53:47

The Home Office says the dignity

0:53:480:53:50

and safety of those in its care is of the utmost importance,

0:53:500:53:54

and they regularly and closely monitor Brook House.

0:53:540:53:56

It says the detention of people without the right to

0:53:580:54:00

remain in the UK who've refused to leave voluntarily is key to

0:54:000:54:04

maintaining an effective immigration system.

0:54:040:54:06

It says it's already ordered a review into the welfare

0:54:080:54:10

of detainees in immigration detention.

0:54:100:54:12

Ten people have been suspended as a result of my investigation.

0:54:140:54:17

After Panorama contacted G4S, it said

0:54:170:54:20

once it has seen my evidence, it will take appropriate action.

0:54:200:54:24

It says any such behaviour is not representative of the many

0:54:250:54:28

G4S colleagues who do a great job,

0:54:280:54:30

often in difficult

0:54:300:54:32

and challenging circumstances,

0:54:320:54:33

and that it investigates all complaints

0:54:330:54:35

and has confidential whistle-blowing channels for staff and detainees.

0:54:350:54:39

Brook House was inspected last year

0:54:420:54:44

and told it was reasonably good and making excellent progress.

0:54:440:54:48

From the inside, that's not what I saw.

0:54:480:54:50

I'm illegal immigrant and I shouldn't be in UK at first place.

0:54:540:54:58

I don't have problem with that. Brook House, you know, they...

0:54:580:55:01

I'm not saying to close it down

0:55:010:55:03

because they need places like that,

0:55:030:55:05

but the thing is, they have to change their policy, you know?

0:55:050:55:08

That's not fair, to keep people for months and months and months.

0:55:080:55:12

They have life exactly like anyone else, you know?

0:55:120:55:15

To miss one day in society, you never have it back.

0:55:150:55:18

Please keep prison people different

0:55:200:55:22

and detention people in different centres. Please.

0:55:220:55:25

If you want to detain some period, please keep very small time,

0:55:270:55:32

not too much.

0:55:320:55:34

I think two weeks, six maximum, but more than two weeks

0:55:340:55:37

very bad for every candidate.

0:55:370:55:39

I have a great fear to be detained again.

0:55:410:55:43

I don't know what was the strategy to be detained and then released.

0:55:440:55:50

I think immigration policy are...

0:55:500:55:53

I can say it doesn't work properly.

0:55:530:55:56

It should be changed.

0:55:560:55:58

Nine days after he was choked by Yan Paschali,

0:56:070:56:10

the Egyptian detainee is in the suicide prevention netting.

0:56:100:56:13

Some staff think he's unhappy about washing up.

0:56:150:56:18

But I know what he's been through.

0:56:230:56:24

HE LAUGHS

0:56:290:56:31

After all that, two months later,

0:56:350:56:38

Abbas's roommate tells me he's now been released.

0:56:380:56:41

So, it was my last day, my last shift at Brook House.

0:56:580:57:01

I've waited for this moment for such a long time and I can't believe

0:57:030:57:06

that I'm never going to have to go back, I genuinely can't.

0:57:060:57:09

WHISTLE BLOWS

0:57:170:57:20

I'll only be able to get closure from that place if we can make

0:57:200:57:23

it better, if we can make a change, and change needs to happen there.

0:57:230:57:27

WHISTLE BLOWS

0:57:310:57:33

APPLAUSE

0:57:330:57:36

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