French voucher firm 'Sodhexo' plans to pay refugees in Britain 34p an hour

Martin Bright, home affairs editor. Sunday September 2, 2001, The Observer

Britain's policy on asylum seekers was engulfed in fresh controversy last night after a French company behind a new detention centre was set to be given the go-ahead to pay refugees 34p an hour for cleaning and cooking.

In a move branded 'inhumane' and akin to forced labour camps in Communist China, the Government plans to grant the company a unique opt-out to save staff costs by paying refugees at the centre less than one-tenth of the minimum wage.

Confidential Home Office documents obtained byThe Observer reveal that UK Detention Services, a subsidiary of the French catering conglomerate Sodexho, has been waived the legal obligation to pay the minimum wage to refugees at a detention camp which will hold 500 people near Heathrow airport when it opens later this month.

The company, which is already being paid millions in taxpayers' money to run the controversial asylum voucher scheme, stands to save millions in staff costs by paying about £12 a week to asylum seekers in effect to run the centre.

But news of the plans last night provoked a furious outcry from Opposition politicians and charities working with refugees, who claimed that the Government was creating an underclass of foreigners who did not enjoy the same human rights as ordinary British citizens.

Norman Baker MP, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, called on the Government to scrap the plans immediately. 'This is not the sort of treatment you would expect in a civilised democracy. This is like the Chinese or Soviet gulags. If they [the Government] have any shame left this will be scrapped within 24 hours.'

He said that if asylum seekers were allowed to work they should be paid the minimum wage. 'It is a disgrace that the Government is prepared to pay millions to a company that is prepared to exploit asylum seekers in such a cruel manner.'

Sally Price, a spokeswoman for Refugee Action, a charity involved in helping asylum seekers, condemned the plans as inhumane. 'The only people who stand to benefit from this are Sodexho,' she said. 'This is nothing short of slave labour.'

A spokesman for the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns said: 'Why is the Home Office pouring millions of pounds into Sodexho? They would be better off spending the money on decent reception centres for new arrivals and providing facilities to make them welcome when they are settled in communities.'

The opening of the Harmondsworth centre near Heathrow will be followed in October by a second high-security detention centre in Yarl's Wood, near Bedford, with capacity for 900 people. That centre will be run by Group 4, the private security company. It is not clear if the company will also be allowed to pay inmates below the minimum wage.

The Government hopes the two centres will facilitate the deportation of asylum seekers whose applications have failed. Home Secretary David Blunkett is thought to have backtracked on plans to scrap the voucher system, despite intense pressure from trade unions. Civil servants believe a return to benefits for asylum seekers would act as a 'pull-factor' to refugees.

However, in an attempt to soften the stigma attached to vouchers, Sodexho plans to change their name to Welcome Passes (at present they are called Buy Passes). The chief executive of Sodexho-Pass International, Ivan Semenoff, said: 'We need to do more to show asylum seekers they are welcome in your brilliant country.'

The Government has paid the French company £2.6 million since the beginning of the voucher scheme in April 2000. The Home Office insisted the contract with Sodexho was covered by commercial confidentiality, but company accounts reveal that it earned £1.1m in its first year of operation. Executives at the Paris headquarters of the company confirmed that the Home Office would pay it £1.5m for this year, during which time it will have printed and distributed more than £50m of vouchers.

'It is quite literally a licence to print money,' said Keith Best, of the Immigration Advisory Service, which provides legal advice for asylum seekers.

The Refugee Council has advised the Government that its voucher and dispersal systems are unworkable. But it said the priority should be to guarantee the human rights of the increasing numbers of asylum seekers being detained in this country when they had committed no crime.

'The Government is running a completely inappropriate detention policy by allowing companies like this to run detention centres. Asylum seekers are the only people in this country who can be held indefinitely without charge,' said a spokesman.

An Observer investigation has revealed that dozens of private companies are set to make fortunes from Britain's asylum seekers thanks to multi-million-pound Government contracts. These include multinationals such as Sodexho, which has worldwide business worth £6bn, and the American penal giant Wackehut, which provides transport for the Government's asylum dispersal scheme.