Security firm linked to ICE crackdown in US reports UK revenue slump after asylum centre contract ends

A private security company linked to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown reported a slump in UK revenues after losing an Asylum centre contract but could make £500m managing the same facility until 2036.Management & Training Corporation (MTC) said sales fell from £28.4m to £17.6m in 2025 after its contract to provide “security and care” at the heavily criticised Manston site in Kent ended in September.A public inquiry described Manston as “overcrowded, squalid and insanitary” between June and November 2022, when MTC took over provision of services for the Home Office.The cessation of the contract last September pushed MTC UK to a £1.6m loss, Companies House filings show, compared with a profit of £1.3m in 2024.But MTC Definitive, a joint venture that MTC UK majority owns, won a contract in May for processing people who arrive on small boats “from disembarkation through to dispersal”.The Irregular Migration Management Services contract will run for six years, with the possibility of a further four-year extension. It covers two Asylum processing centres, Manston and the Western Jet Foil site in Dover.Despite the loss, MTC UK’s highest-paid director received £211,000 in remuneration during 2025, an increase of 5%.Ellie Reeves, the Labour MP appointed last week as attorney general, previously criticised high salaries for executives at companies such as MTC.The company is owned by an American parent based in Utah, which runs prisons and job training centres in the US. Its facilities include detention centres used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the department that has received a significant funding increase and been criticised for its brutality during Trump’s presidency.MTC says its “vision” is to be a “worldwide leader in social impact by transforming lives and strengthening communities”.The new UK small boats contract is worth an initial £462m but could be worth as much as £539m if it is extended to last 10 years. The contract will cover the joint venture’s work across the Manston site and “associated disembarkation points” for people arriving in boats along the Kent coast.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe award of the contract is being challenged in court by Mitie, another outsourcing company. According to the BBC, Mitie claimed in the high court that the Home Office failed to “prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest” because MTC head of development, Dave Butler, was previously deputy director of Manston.The Home Office said the claim was baseless and without merit, and there was no conflict of interest, the BBC reported.Before it received the Manston contract, MTC had been criticised for dangerous conditions at Rainsbrook secure training centre, a youth jail in Warwickshire. Ofsted, the education regulator for England, said children were locked up for more than 23 hours a day with “no justifiable rationale” during the coronavirus pandemic, and later inspections found physical assaults, children carrying weapons and warnings from staff that someone was likely to die at the centre.The Guardian has approached MTC for comment.