Dungavel latest: Detainees in Scotland paid just £1 an hour by Guantanamo Bay firm
Categories: Articles:Asylum & Refugees |
Published: 28/04/2015 |
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People held in Dungavel detention centre in South Lanarkshire are paid only £1 an hour for work, it has been revealed. Figures obtained by investigative campaign group Corporate Watch and reported in the Sunday Herald show that detainees at the centre in South Lanarkshire worked a total of 52,858 hours over 12 months between 2013 and October 2014 and were paid £52,858 over the same period. The work undertaken includes cooking, cleaning and laundry with detainees doing work to get money to pay for phone credit in order to call legal advisers and friends.
Sandra White MSP calls detention centre “a source of shame”
Dungavel detention centre is run by US private security giant GEO group which also runs parts of Guantanamo Bay.
The UK is the only country in the European Union which does not have a time limit for how long people can be held in detention. Recent figures have shown that many detainees in Dungavel have been held there for many months and some for over a year.
Corporate Watch’s Phil Miller told the Sunday Herald: "The detainees might have been arrested for working outside, but once they are in the detention centre they can then work for only £1 an hour. That is something which detainees find very hypocritical.
"Generally the jobs include cleaning the centres, preparing food in the kitchen and doing laundry."
A documentary which highlights the practice of paying detainees poverty wages in detention centres across the UK will premiere at Glasgow’s CCA on Wednesday.
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