Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Increased security in detention centres

Theprisma | 16.05.2011 05:49 | Migration | Repression

A new phone system run by a private company will replace personal mobile phones in immigration detention centres, according to Corporate Watch, a group which investigates corporate activities.

As a result, detainees will not be able to call free numbers and will have to pay higher rates in order to call their families and lawyers. Furthermore, the new system, which will be connected to a central operating system, will allow immigration authorities and the centre’s prison management to record and monitor all conversations, as well as ending calls.



A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Borders Agency (UKBA) has confirmed an agreement has been reached between the security company G4S and the telecommunications business Global Comms & Consulting Ltd. (GCC) to implement this new system, which has been piloted with prisoners in Tinsley House Detention Centre, located near Gatwick airport, London, since February. The aforementioned G4S is responsible for carrying out these tests, and is responsible for two other UK Detention Centres, in addition to Tinsley.

GCC is a telecommunications business whose headquarters are based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, specialising in security services for governmental agencies and multinational companies. It currently operates similar services to those being tested in Tinsley in some UK prisons. It is hoped that if the initiative is successful other Immigration Detention Centres in the UK will also implement the system.

Business vs. Rights

This new system means the detainees will have to use telephones and cards which will be provided by the centre, and will be more expensive than normal pre-paid phone cards. The new system will not allow calls to free 0800 numbers without buying credit, which means they cannot contact their lawyers and other support organizations providing free phone services for those without credit.

Furthermore, although both the GCC and the UKBA recognize that some “technical difficulties” occurred during the testing period, G4S denies any issues. No formal or independent investigation is expected to take place regarding this new system, except an internal one from the security company G4S itself.

According to sources in the UKBA, the principal objective of this system, which is similar to that used in prisons in the UK, is to have “more control over the detainees’ telephone calls”.

This way, the immigration authorities can listen in on all calls made and received by the detainees, in order to identify any possible “problems”. The authorities can completely shut off the telephone system in the Detention Centre in the event of internal disturbance or riots, thus preventing detainees from contacting support groups and the media.

The British Home Office has previously been embarrassed in recent times due to detainees’ accounts of acts of protest to the press and prisoner sympathy groups. For example, reports of violent attacks by Serco security guards on several women holding a hunger strike in Yard’s Wood detention centre in February last year resulted in a lot of bad publicity for the UKBA or Serco.

More information can be found at the following websites:

 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3935

 http://closecampsfield.wordpress.com/

 http://www.gccnetworks.com/

(Translated by Marie-Thérèse Slorach)

Theprisma
- Homepage: http://www.theprisma.co.uk/2011/05/15/united-kingdom-increased-security-in-detention-centres/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech