The Home Office announced it is hiring G4S to provide welfare support to detained families awaiting deportation. But the private security firm has a global record of human rights abuses: how can it be trusted to protect the welfare of vulnerable families?  

G4S will take over family welfare support from children’s charity Barnardo’s, which denounced the decision as not being “in the best interests of the children.” G4S will now be tasked with supporting families awaiting deportation as they prepare for their resettlement.    

The Home Office contract with G4S exposes vulnerable children and families to the abuse and neglect that riddles G4S’s record. The same company that was charged with using excessive force on child detainees has no place providing social services for the UK’s most vulnerable immigrant populations.

Urge the Home Office to ensure the welfare of immigrant families and end its contract with G4S.

Home Office claims that G4S can provide the “same key aspects of welfare support to families” as children’s charity Barnardo’s. But that’s hard to believe when G4S is notorious for abuse, neglect, and unlawful death in their custody.

In 2011, father of five Jimmy Mubenga died in the custody of G4S while being deported to Angola. A jury found he had been “unlawfully killed,” and an investigation reported racist text messages on the phones of two G4S guards tasked with his removal. Just last May, the Ministry of Justice relieved G4S from operating Medway youth jail in Kent after a BBC undercover report showed use of excessive force on children.

These cases are just a small fraction G4S’s track record that makes it unqualified to run prisons -- let alone provide welfare services to families being detained there. We’ve come together before to oppose the government’s cozy relationship with G4S, like when we fought their decision to hand over the UK’s discrimination hotline to G4S. Now, we need to stand with detained families and ensure they receive the welfare services they deserve -- services G4S has no place providing.