source: Fair Planet

published: 16 April 2024

Image Credit: SurasakiStock at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As populist rhetoric globally advocates for reducing the "burden" of taxpayer money spent on managing asylum seekers, private corporations are reaping billions in profits from government contracts. Advocates are raising alarms about the rapidly deteriorating conditions for asylum seekers within this system.

Agnes Tanoh enjoyed a successful career in her home country, Ivory Coast, as the chief personal assistant to the first lady. But when civil war broke out following the 2010 elections, she and her colleagues faced persecution and were forced to seek asylum immediately.

Having supported her children's education at British universities and with fond memories from her visits to the UK, Tanoh chose to seek asylum in the country where her daughter lived. But Tanoh’s image of the UK as a beacon of freedom and human rights was shattered when she was unexpectedly detained at the police station where she went to report herself and request asylum.

With nothing on her but the clothes she wore and no further explanations, she was put in a van with tinted windows and after a long journey was admitted to the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre. 

During Tanoh’s detention, she discovered that the centre was privately run. In a conversation with FairPlanet, she revealed that private corporations managed every aspect of the system, including the guards, the van drivers transporting asylum seekers, catering, housing and even deportation flights.

Read full article >

Other Related News:

UK passes bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda: What’s next?

23 April 2024

Removing barriers to the power of lived experience

17 April 2024