My following article, with journalist Paul Farrell, appears in today’s Crikey: The recent suicide at Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney again confirmed that the situation in Australia’s immigration detention centres has become critical. But what has remained largely unquestioned is the role of Serco, the British multinational that holds the $367 million contract to run…
Showing all posts tagged Serco
Serco watch in Western Australia
With the recent news that Serco will be running a major public hospital in Western Australia, this website has been established to monitor the situation and campaign against it.
Finding Serco staff involved in unaccountable abuse; all in a day’s work
The reach of private company Serco is global and its human rights record remains abysmal. Yet it continues receiving lucrative contracts. That should stop: Prison campaigners last night called for a review of a North-East secure unit after revelations that 21 children had suffered injuries while being restrained. The injuries were sustained by children at…
Serco and G4S are peas from the same pod
In Australian political life, only the Greens are hammering away against the privatisation of detention centres: Australia’s immigration detention system is failing, and this makes the need for transparency greater than ever, according to Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on Immigration, says she is concerned at reports that immigration service provider SERCO may…
Serco discovers that detention centres are so yesterday’s market
That’s right, Serco now sees the health sector as a new area in which to profit. Clearly increased public funding on health is a controversial idea in the 21st century: The [Western Australian] State Government has named private company Serco Australia as its preferred option to provide non-clinical support services to the $2 billion Fiona…
Oz journalists dare to mention Serco (just a little)
All praise this rarity. A story in the Australian media (yesterday’s Australian) on Serco. Short but oh so sweet: A security company contracted by Serco is being investigated over claims it used unlicensed guards at police detention centres. Serco is responsible for running Australia’s rapidly expanding network of immigration detention centres. Northern Territory Licensing, Regulation…
This is what our asylum seeker policy looks like
While Australia releases some families from immigration detention into the community yet builds more facilities to imprison refugees, a foreign journalist visits the country and finds a privatised and largely unaccountable system away from the prying eyes of average citizens. Just as the government wants it to be.
Serco and friends line up for dirty and profitable work
How many more people can we exploit for profit? Far too many, it seems: Jimmy Mubenga died during deportation from the UK, and the first fingers of blame will undoubtedly be pointed at the Home Office-contracted private security firm, G4S. But we need to look at ourselves and ask how we became a society that…
Serco and friends take refugees and show them the door
Exporting misery is a nice little earner: The scale of Britain’s largely privatised deportation industry has mushroomed as the Home Office responds to political pressure for the faster removal of failed asylum-seekers and people overstaying their visas. There are 11 immigration removal centres across the country with space for around 3,000 detainees. Most are operated…
Australian unions recognise the power and necessity of BDS
Now this is news, a growing realisation that the status-quo in Palestine is simply oppressing Palestinians. Civil society is rising: Australian unions are signing up to an international campaign to boycott Israeli goods. But a fight is brewing over a proposal for the Australian Council of Trade Unions to endorse the movement. The broad-based divestment…