28 January 2024 , 21:47
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Elite prison officers are to train a contractor’s staff how to force asylum-seekers on to planes bound for Rwanda.
Government contractor Mitie, which runs immigration detention centres, is hiring “use of force instructors”. An advert says the £36,000-a-year roles would be near Bedford for nine months, then at Manston, Kent with travel to Heathrow and Gatwick.
The Home Office has a short-term immigration detention centre at Manston. Three aeroplane fuselages delivered to Cardington Airfield near Bedford in November are thought to be for the training.
Mitie’s instructors will work alongside NTRG, the Prison Service’s elite, anti-riot National Tactical Resource Group.
Specialist prison officers could be drafted in for the training (PA)Training at Cardington will reportedly prepare staff for violence and activists’ protests as rejected asylum-seekers are made to fly to Rwanda. A Supreme Court ruling delayed the Government’s scheme but flights could begin this summer after the Safety of Rwanda Bill overrode judges’ concerns.
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The Times said last week that the Home Office has a one-year contract for a hangar at Cardington. The airfield’s Hangar Two, where the fuselages were delivered, is owned by LR Cardington GP Ltd, partly owned by London and Regional Property.
LRP is owned by billionaire brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone, who gave the Tories nearly £150,000 in 2005-2018. It declined to comment. The Home Office said: “We will continue to ensure new escorts have the training facilities necessary.”
The Sunday Mirror revealed last year that of 102 immigration custody staff suspended in 2022, 83 were Mitie workers. Mitie said last year it expects high standards from officers, who work “with care and compassion every day, often in challenging circumstances”.