source: The Justice Gap

published: 1 March 2023

Image Credit: Public archive

New data obtained under a Freedom of Information request has provided fresh evidence of government exploitation of asylum seekers.

Documents seen by openDemocracy, an independent media platform, claim to demonstrate that asylum seekers in detention centres run by Home Office contractors are paid £1 an hour as a fixed rate to carry out work. The wages are funded by the Home Office but paid to detainees by the private contractors that run the detention centres. This has not changed in line with inflation.

Detainees are currently exempt from minimum wage legislation. This policy has been in force since 2006 and was previously challenged under judicial review unsuccessfully in 2019 at the High Court. The following year, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal.

Records under Freedom of Information requests reveal that detainees carried out 215,000 hours of work in 2022. Campaigners argue that centres rely on detainees working to ensure that they properly function.

The roles vary but include: cleaners, welfare buddies, kitchen assistants, barbers, laundry orderlies, painters, gym orderlies and shop assistants. The work has been described by one detainee as “like slave labour”. Such roles are voluntary.

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