Group 4 grab another Slice of the Immigration Pie

There are rich pickings to be had from making the lives of migrants and refugees as miserable as possible. Nobody knows this better than Group 4 Falck. Not satisfied with what they had got they are now on the way to monopolising the 'immigration industry' in the UK and possibly the world.

Group 4 Falck are best known in the UK for guarding and transporting cash, transporting prisoners to court hearings, but more notoriously allowing prisoners to escape.

As Group 4 Falck they manage Campsfield Detention/removal Centre, Oakington Detention/removal Centre and built and manage Yarl's Wood Detention/removal Centre, (closed temporally). They also managed Harmondsworth before losing the contract to Sodhexo. Group 4 also operates three prisons in the UK: HMP Wolds in East Yorkshire, HMP Altcourse in Liverpool and HMP Rye Hill near Rugby.

We have previously reported:

* Premier Detention Services Ltd, who run Dungavel Detention/removal Centre, are owned by Premier Custodial Group, who in turn are owned by Wackenhut Corporate Corrections.

Wackenhut manage Tinsley House Detention/removal centre at Gatwick airport. They also hold the contract for transporting dispersed asylum seekers throughout the UK and transporting detainees captured by 'Immigration Snatch Squads' to detention/removal centres and prisons, and from prisons and detention/removal centres, transporting removees to airports and ports. And is planning to build a secure transit camp at Great Gransden in Cambridgeshire.

Wackenhut owns Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), which runs all the Australian detention centres, including the notorious Woomera Detention Centre. They also run detention centres in the United States, Puerto Rico, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and the Caribbean island of Curacao, with a total of over 40,000 beds.

Wackenhut have been taken over by Group 4 Falck

Following eight months of negotiations, on 8 May 2002 Group 4 Falck took over Wackenhut to became the world’s largest security company. It also  acquired access to the burgeoning security guard markets of the US and South America. The new company now employs around 208,000 people in 80 countries. Group 4 Falck and Wackenhut will together be by far the largest detention contractor in the UK, profiting as never before from the government's racist and inhumane asylum and immigration policy.

Group 4 Falck will have an estimated turnover of DKK 31 billion from the prison industry and the internment and transportation of migrants and refugees. With the acquisition of Wackenhut, Group 4 Falck now have more than a passing interest in New Labour’s immigration policies.

Prison contractors in England and Wales are obliged to seek approval from the contracting authority - in this case the home office - for any change in ownership affecting the operation of a contract.

The home office will not say whether its approval has been granted. "We wouldn’t comment on something that affects  a commercial company. It’s a matter for Wackenhut and Group 4," said a spokesperson.

For Group 4 'Secure Borders, Safe Haven' will mean 'Secure Business, Safe Profits'.