'Lock-up time, you animals' – migrants abused

Published on Thursday 3 January 2008 22:28

A CATALOGUE of racist behaviour inside Britain's immigration detention centres was exposed in an official report yesterday.

Immigration offenders and failed asylum-seekers at one centre, Colnbrook near Heathrow airport, were described as "black b******s" by one female officer, who taunted detainees by saying: "Animals, lock-up time".

The report, commissioned by the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), described the atmosphere at Colnbrook as "distressing" and "turbulent".

Many detainees who had been held in jails said they would prefer to be back in prison than in Colnbrook, the audit team from Focus Consultancy added.

At Lindholme immigration removal centre in South Yorkshire, one member of staff described north African detainees as "donkeys", accompanied by "full animal sounds".

The officer had been dismissed and there were now generally good relations between staff and detainees at the 112-bed centre.

At Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, also near Heathrow, the document said: "Regular taunting of detainees by some officers goes unchallenged."

The report was commissioned by the Home Office's BIA after a TV documentary in 2005 exposed racism and mistreatment at Oakington immigration centre in Cambridgeshire.

Lin Homer, chief executive of the BIA, said: "The BIA takes any allegation of abuse or misconduct very seriously, which is why we commissioned this report."