A private prison firm that was criticised over dangerous conditions at a youth jail is now providing security at an asylum seekers’ centre where Border Force staff have warned that overcrowding and assaults are creating a pressure cooker situation.
Management & Training Corporation (MTC) was repeatedly criticised by the regulator Ofsted over conditions at the Rainsbrook secure training centre, near Rugby, where children at young as 15 were locked up for more than 23 hours a day with “no justifiable rationale” during the coronavirus pandemic.
All children were removed from Rainsbrook in July 2021, after subsequent inspections documented physical assaults, children carrying weapons and warnings from staff that someone was likely to die at the centre. Some of the children were sent to adult prisons instead.
Earlier this year, the Guardian reported that MTC, owned by a US private prisons company of the same name, made a profit of £11m in 2020, the year before the £50m Rainsbrook contract was terminated by mutual consent with the Ministry of Justice.
In 2021, the Home Office awarded the company a new contract to run “migrant quarantine hotels” in the Midlands, using staff who had previously worked at Rainsbrook.
Accounts filed at Companies House reveal that this contract was later amended to allow MTC to take charge of security at an asylum seekers’ facility for people who have crossed the Channel on small boats.
The Home Office does not appear to have published the contract. But about 50 staff are understood to have been moved to work at Manston under a rolling contract with MTC that has no fixed end date and a five-week notice period.
Last week, the POA, the trade union for Border Force, raised concerns that the Manston centre was being overwhelmed by an influx of migrants, with police called to the facility on two occasions.
The shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock, said: “The Conservative government is presiding over an asylum system which is neither safe nor secure, as shown by the recent disappearance of 116 child migrants from emergency hotels and now by the failure of ministers to do proper due diligence on suppliers.
“Conservative failure has seen the number of small boat crossings spiral and the number of asylum claims processed plummet compared to five years ago.
“Instead of chasing headlines Labour would do the hard graft, by speeding up processing, negotiating a returns and family agreement with France, and by switching spending from the failing Rwanda plan to fund an elite unit in the National Crime Agency to tackle criminal smuggler gangs.”
The Home Office insisted asylum seekers were safe at Manston, adding that some could be deported to Rwanda under the controversial agreement with the autocratic African nation.
“The continued rise in dangerous small boat crossings is causing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system,” said a spokesperson.
“Manston is resourced and equipped to process migrants securely and we will provide alternative accommodation as soon as possible.
“Despite the lies they have been sold by people smugglers, those entering the UK illegally via the Channel will not be allowed to start a new life here. These individuals will be in scope to be relocated to Rwanda under our migration and economic development partnership.”
Accounts for MTC show that its profits fell from £11m to £4.3m in 2021, the year it lost the Rainsbrook contract.
The main reason for the decline was the cessation of its contracts to run private probation services in London and the Thames Valley.
The contracts were not renewed because the government renationalised the probation service after a “catastrophic” £4.1bn privatisation programme pioneered by the former justice secretary Chris Grayling.
MTC now intends to bid for more government work, including contracts to run adult prisons.
Its accounts reported an increase in contractual penalties for understaffing at Rainsbrook during 2021, as it struggled to find staff to work on a contract that was coming to an end.
A spokesperson for MTC said: “While we experienced challenges at Rainsbrook STC, that were largely related to the coronavirus pandemic, we had a strong record in delivering probation services.
“In London, inspectors commended our sustained improvements to a previously failing service and in Thames Valley our service was rated ‘good’.
“We continue to invest in our people and services to deliver high-quality support to people who need help, including playing a part in the Home Office’s multi-agency response for newly arrived asylum seekers at Manston in Kent.”
MTC’s accounts also disclosed that it was defending “open cases”, without disclosing what they were.
