An Investigation Into Racist Insults Committed by Staff of the Home Office Funded Immigration Contractor 'Mitie'

Murad Jandali | 2 years ago

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The Mirror newspaper reported on February 19, 2022, that the British authorities had ordered an investigation into how several staff of the Mitie firm directed racist insults against Syrian refugees in the country.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has been criticized and pressured to act and investigate these racist insults by Mitie staff, which is funded by her ministry.

It is noteworthy that immigration detention, deportation flights, bureaucratic cruelty and institutional racism have become the most important features of the new British immigration system after leaving the European Union.

 

Racist Insults

The Mirror, in its exclusive report on February 19, highlighted racist insults against Syrian refugees, prominent British figures and the Chinese people committed by Mitie staff, who accompany migrants and run detention centers.

The whistleblower told the British newspaper that several sordid messages were circulated in the form of jokes on the WhatsApp group, which were written by 80 staff of the firm.

Mitie, which was founded in 1987, is a private firm with strong ties to the Conservative Party, and in 2017, it had contracted with the British Home Office for a period of ten years, for £525 million, in order to manage detention centers and deportation of illegal immigrants and the deportation of foreign criminals.

It is noteworthy that racism is rampant within the Mitie Care and Custody Department, which acts on behalf of the British Home Office and deals with 13,000 detainees.

“The accompanying officers, often described as racist and cruel, are allowed to use force that causes pain and may threaten life, which reveals a terrible violation and pathological racism in the firm that receives millions of pounds to deport humanitarian asylum seekers and migrants from Britain,” according to the newspaper.

Among the jokes shared by Mitie staff were that Syrian refugees were swimming to reach the UK, and the group mocked the physical injuries of detainees.

Obscene jokes also mocked black MP Diane Abbott, along with TV host Gary Lineker, for inviting refugees into his home, the Chinese people and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

In turn, the Home Office ordered an investigation immediately, while a government spokesman said: “Mitie will brief the Immigration Minister next week on steps needed to ensure that individuals are treated with dignity and respect.”

 

Bullying and Discrimination

The whistleblower of the WhatsApp group told the Mirror that the messages are of a toxic racist effect among officials who are supposed to take care of refugees.

Minister of Immigration in the shadow government, Stephen Kinnock, described the WhatsApp group as disgusting, stressed that the Home Office had quickly turned into a national embarrassment, and called for a review of the government contract signed with Mitie.

The exchange of abusive messages has been going on since March 2020 in an informal group created for Detained Custody Officers (DCOs) to share updates, but the WhatsApp group called (Escorts) has since been shut down.

The group's messages show racism is rife among the £21,000-a-year Local Coordination Offices, a whistleblower told the Mirror.

Mitie has admitted failing to escalate whistleblower complaints made two years ago about racist WhatsApp group posts.

The firm's management was informed of the new WhatsApp messages last month, and at that time a message was published in that group saying: “Because screenshots are taken and colleagues are reported, the Commission feels that the group and its users are at risk of continued investigations. The decision was made to close the group and delete all of its history.”

Some members reacted angrily, with one saying: “It’s really sad to be in a job that requires trust, without being able to trust the people you work with.”

The whistleblower stressed to the newspaper: “These Mitie managers don't care whether they are seen as racist or not. It's just about trying to figure out who the snitch is.”

Karen Doyle, of the Movement for Justice, said in a statement to the Mirror: “The stories we heard from the detainees confirm the reality of racist attitudes, disrespect and serious physical restrictions by their guard officers.”

“This racist culture among escorts comes from the top. Asylum seekers and migrants have often been stripped of their human rights and categorized as criminals due to bullying behavior modeled by Home Secretary Priti Patel,” Doyle added.

On the other hand, Mitie pointed out in a statement to the Guardian that there is no place for racism, bullying or discrimination within the firm.

In addition, Mitie suspended the work of those against whom complaints were submitted until the results of the investigation appeared.

 

Rampant Problem

In the same issue, the Mirror published an opinion article with its own voice on February 19, noting that these violations are further evidence of the Home Secretary's lack of control, in addition her disastrous handling of the boat crossings across the English Channel was also previous evidence of that.

“It is right to deport immigrants who do not have a legal basis to remain in this country, but it is completely wrong for those who accompany immigrants to make disgusting racist jokes about them,” it said.

The newspaper called on the Home Office to investigate these messages, some of which targeted Diane Abbott, in addition to Priti Patel, who now needs to control its management and the foreign companies that finance it.

“The Conservative Party is still keen to provide business to the private companies close to them instead of hiring internal staff, their line manager is the government,” the newspaper pointed out.

“If the failure of the Mitie management is blamed for this egregious racist behavior of its staff, the government contract with it should be terminated immediately,” the Mirror stressed.

In turn, international lawyer Mr. Bassam Tablieh in a statement to Al-Estiklal: “There is no doubt that racist attitudes and statements are totally unacceptable, the British government and law punish such actions or statements harshly.”

“The statements made by the Mitie staffs firm in charge of caring for refugees are unacceptable and they must be punished and removed from work, so that they can serve as an example to others. The British government must also be vigilant in monitoring such hateful criminal behaviour,” he added.

“On a personal level, and by virtue of my work as a lawyer in Britain, I have previously received several complaints of racist treatment of refugees residing in the country, but unfortunately, with the scarcity of evidence and the difficulty of obtaining it, and the issue has been resolved from the legal side, it made it difficult for me to file such complaints against the Home Office because of the difficulty of convicting them due to the scarcity of evidence,” Mr. Tablieh said.

“A large part of the refugees are not aware of the imposed laws and have not yet been able to speak the language of the country, so they are racially insulted and exploited by some racist people. Therefore, tightening the penalty for such acts is an urgent necessity. There are also a lot of racist attitudes against refugees in Britain, which find it difficult to go out in public,” he added.

“Racist acts are subject to condemnation by the British government, and it is stringent that the perpetrators are punished if there is strong evidence, but to prove that this act is racist is very difficult, as these words and actions can be evaded with flimsy pretexts,” lawyer confirmed.”

“For example: Delaying granting refugees homes on the pretext that these are the available homes, and a long processing of asylum applications on the pretext of work pressure; all of these things make it difficult to prove that the racist factor was present in these events,” Mr. Tablieh said.

 

Inhumane Policies

Racism, hate speech and incitement against the other, foreigner or violator of religious or ethnic affiliation, have turned into a disturbing social and political phenomenon that threatens the security and civil peace of states; Britain is at the forefront of countries suffering from this dangerous phenomenon.

In April 2021, a BMG survey commissioned by The Independent revealed that a large segment of the British public believes that the UK should start addressing its deepening problem of racism, which increases significantly among blacks, Asians and ethnic minorities.

Many of those who participated in that survey saw that many British institutions, ranging from the government, the police and the media, to the royal family, are racist.

An article published by the New York Times on April 1, 2021, had also criticized the government of Boris Johnson in Britain, and said it practices anti-immigrant tyranny and pursues policies based on cruelty and destructive inhumanity towards them.

Since the Johnson government took office in December 2019, it has sought to establish a much tougher and punitive system for immigration and border control. On January 1, 2022, its new points-based system came into effect.

The past months were full of many events that called for the intervention of the British High Court to seek redress for asylum seekers against the decisions of the Home Office, when the latter decided to put them in former army camps, and it appeared that these camps did not meet the humanitarian conditions for living.

Those who follow the path of Home Secretary Priti Patel will discover how she is trying to market herself as an iron woman, a title that the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher monopolizes.

To achieve this ambition, Patel does not hesitate to enact measures that she believes will give her internal popularity among the far-right and the classes that refuse to receive immigrants and refugees.

It is noteworthy that Patel is trying to block the door to everyone who enters the country illegally, according to her description, but so far her plans that need Parliament's approval have not been implemented.

 

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