Refugees, criminals and G4S and Serco. These firms have a lot to answer for!

Prison riots, Detention center riots and private security firms

They have a lot in common and its not just Manus Island.

When governments shelve their responsibility and out source to private security firms they get what they pay for and they don't get much for their buck. They are in the business to make money and that means they cut costs, be it training or staff numbers, that's how they make a buck. As for the training it appears that almost anyone can qualify.

Governments just turn a blind eye because it's cheap.

By Katherine Fallah: Gardian

The private security firm’s role in Manus riots, though shocking, comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the history of abuse allegations that have been levelled at G4S and Serco in their detention operations abroad.

In the past six months alone, G4S and Serco have been embroiled in allegations of outrageous proportion.

In October 2013, South African authorities assumed control of a G4S-run prison, after it descended into violent chaos amid allegations of torture of inmates by G4S guards.

Among the allegations are that G4S guardsforcibly injected inmates with anti-psychotic drugs, even though they were not suffering from psychosis, and administered electric shocks for purely disciplinary reasons.

G4S denies all allegations of abuse, but a G4S employee said guards used electric shields because they were “hopelessly outnumbered by dangerous prisoners.”

The prison broke out into riots and, on three occasions, prisoners took G4S guards hostage. South African authorities intervened after finding the firm had “lost effective control” of the prison.

Serco’s most recent scandals in the United Kingdom have included allegations of sexual abuse in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal center, where detainees await deportation from the UK.

Detainees have alleged sexual and indecent assault, and identified systemic patterns of sexual abuse of vulnerable detainees who are led to believe that succumbing to guards’ demands for sexual favours represents their only hope of being released from detention.