The following… appears in the wonderful publication Right Now, an online site dedicated to human rights: In his new book,… Profits of Doom,… independent Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Curtin Immigration Detention Centre and Christmas Island to investigate the reality of Australia’s, notoriously… secretive, privatised detention facilities for asylum seekers.… In this excerpt, Loewenstein is on Christmas Island (CI)…
Showing all posts tagged Serco
Private companies making a fortune from asylum seekers
My following piece appears in the Melbourne Age today: In 2005, Labor’s then immigration spokesman Tony Burke said detention centres for asylum seekers must never be run by private companies. “You shouldn’t have a situation”, he said, “where the level of supervision and the standard of care has anything to do with the private profits…
Readings positively reviews Profits of Doom
My new book Profits of Doom is now out. Here’s a great review from one of Australia’s leading independent bookstores, Readings: Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein has travelled to Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Haiti and around Australia to report on a growing trend of ”˜vulture capitalism’ where the political and economic culture encourages ”˜corporate vultures to…
Australia’s behaviour towards Papua New Guinea akin to vulture capitalism
My following article appears today in the Guardian: The Australian government’s decision to… send all refugee boat arrivals… to Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a… political earthquake. It has nothing to do with alleviating the suffering of asylum seekers – if Canberra cared about it, a regional solution would allow processing of claims in Indonesia – and will…
G4S and Serco act fraudulently in UK but more contracts flowing
A key issue in my forthcoming book, Profits of Doom, is the role of multinationals in turning huge profits from warehousing the most vulnerable people in our societies, including asylum seekers. These revelations in Britain (via The Independent) are interesting but sadly history suggests that like vampires these corporations continue scoring contracts because neo-liberal politicians…
Behind the wire of privatised immigration detention
The reality inside Australia’s countless, Serco run detention centres is far too often ignored by the media. There are notable exceptions, of course, and it’s a key theme in my upcoming book, Profits of Doom. One of the strongest examples of independent journalism tackling the issue is the public release this week of Detention Logs,…
How privatisation infects Australia
My following piece is published today in the Guardian Australia: The racism was raw. In 2011, John worked inside the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, and had little time for asylum seekers and their plight. He believed they had more rights than he and his co-workers had been given. John was employed by MSS Security,…
How Britain sells weapons to the world and still claims to be responsible nation
Penetrating story by Andy Beckett in the Guardian: In the town centre of Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, between McDonald’s and Carphone Warehouse, there is an unusual statue. Four firm-jawed figures in factory clothes stand back-to-back. One wears a flat cap, one wields a sledgehammer, one has a welder’s visor. All of them are in purposeful poses,…
Serco and G4S making a killing by British outsourcing craze
(Via The Independent): More than half of the Government’s contract spending on detention services went to just two firms, G4S and Serco, a report reveals today. G4S was this month stripped of a key prison contract in the wake of its shambolic handling of Olympic security but the report reveals it won contracts for a…
When a country privatises the kitchen sink, quelle surprise when things go wrong
Interesting development in Britain (via the Guardian) that shows deep concern with the companies both major sides of politics increasingly believe should run the country: Home Office ministers have ordered weekly reports on the progress of two new contracts with the private security companies… G4S… and… Serco… to house and provide support services for thousands of asylum seekers and…