Home Office contractor investigates claims of staff racism and hate speech

One of the government’s key contractors has launched an investigation into allegations of racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate speech among staff working in immigration removal centres, the Guardian has learned.Whistleblowers from the company, Mitie, have alleged that some staff members working in immigration removal centres and deporting migrants have made offensive comments at work and in social media posts.A dossier of examples, seen by the Guardian, has been sent to Mitie bosses, who said they were investigating.The Home Office said the allegations were a matter for Mitie.Allegations in the dossier include Islamophobic comments made at work. One staff member allegedly said immigrants “should be kicked out of our country”. Another allegedly said: “All Muslim men beat their wives.”One staff member allegedly expressed support on social media for a group that reportedly has links to the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson.Social media posts allegedly liked by Mitie staff members include one that refers to women as “old slags”, another that shows a photograph of an Orthodox Jewish man alongside the words “shalom cunts”, and another that says: “I call my weed the Qur’an, burning it gets you stoned.”A member of staff allegedly said of escorting migrants on a coach to deport them: “I don’t like to sit next to people on a coach who smell like curry.”A senior staff member allegedly liked a social media post from a far-right activist that read: “Sadiq Khan is transforming London into a Muslim City. We need to return it to a Christian city.” Mitie said the individual had liked the post by mistake so no further action would be taken against her.One of the whistleblowers who is calling for a full and thorough investigation into the allegations said: “As a member of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community, I am appalled, distressed and no longer feel safe or respected in my workplace.“It is creating a hostile, discriminatory culture that puts staff, detainees and our government contracts at severe risk.“I suffer severe stress, anxiety and fear coming to work. I no longer feel safe, valued or protected. I feel betrayed, especially as our role is to support vulnerable people. I remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, but I stand by every detail in this submission.”Mitie has previously faced accusations of racism and discrimination among its staff.Its chief executive apologised to the home secretary in February 2022 for a series of racist WhatsApp posts by staff. The posts came from members of a 120-strong WhatsApp group operating at the time called “escorts meet and greet”, set up in mid-2019. The group was subsequently closed down.An employment tribunal in 2021 said it was deeply concerned about Home Office contractors who deport people from the UK having used the racist term “cotton pickers” to describe their black colleagues, but threw out a claim of race and disability discrimination.An investigation was launched last year after a racist message was reportedly “blasted out” on portable radios used by Home Office contractors at the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent, which handles small boat arrivals.The deeply offensive broadside, saying “fuck off you [N-word]s, go back to where you came from”, was reportedly heard at the Manston.Mitie sources said that while they did not comment on the specifics of investigations, such as the one into the reported racist message broadcast over Manston’s radio system, communications technology has been upgraded to enhance traceability and closely monitor transmissions.A Mitie spokesperson said: “There is no place for racism or discrimination of any type in our business. We take any allegations of this nature seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”