Immigration detainees whose coach caught fire as it took them to a deportation flight were handcuffed by escort staff before they were allowed to get off, in breach of Home Office rules, eight of the detainees have said.

In interviews with the Guardian, the detainees said that just minutes before the vehicle exploded and as fumes filled the cabin, one of the guards started handing out handcuffs to his colleagues.

After the cuffing process, which took several minutes, staff working for the Capita-owned security firm Tascor took the detainees off the bus, they said. They were instructed to stand about 40ft away on the M25 as the vehicle exploded.

Home Office rules say that restraint during transit could amount to degrading or inhuman treatment, in breach of the European convention on human rights, “unless risk is properly assessed and the use of restraints fully justified”.

The fire on the bus was widely reported last week, but the Guardian has learned that the passengers were a mix of refused asylum seekers and other migrants, being taken from Harmondsworth immigration removal centre for a flight to Pakistan.

There were 10 detainees onboard the coach. As well as the four quoted in this article, the Guardian was able to contact four others. Speaking by telephone in separate calls, all of them maintained that they had been handcuffed before they were allowed to leave the vehicle. The detainees said a security guard had stood at the entrance while they were restrained and the back of the vehicle was on fire.

“They were handcuffing the detainees instead of leading us to safety,” said Ali, one of the group. “I feared for the lives of all the people on board.”

A Capita spokesperson said it was “factually inaccurate that when the fire was identified the individuals were then handcuffed”.

Ali said that he had been told by security officers that the coach had been known to be leaking oil when it arrived at Harmondsworth. “The bus was bound to its fate,” he said. “Three different officers have told me that oil was leaking from the back of the bus and there was a puddle of oil on the ground. They told me that managers here at Harmondsworth knew about it and they should have stopped us from getting on that bus, but they did not.”

A spokesperson for Mitie, the outsourcing company that runs Harmondsworth, said that while a leak had been noticed it had not been clear whether it came from the vehicle that caught fire.

The detainees described panic and chaos on the coach. Faizal, a rejected asylum seeker who was also on the coach, told the Guardian: “We couldn’t breathe on the coach because of the fumes. People were screaming: ‘Open the door, open the door.’ But they wouldn’t.”



The detailed picture of the fire supplied by detainees will be seen by critics of the immigration removal centre system as further evidence of inhumane practices after longstanding controversy over its operation. Human rights campaigners have frequently expressed concerns about the mistreatment of detainees across the system.



Ali said that the ordeal began at 4pm last Wednesday, when he was told he had 10 minutes to pack and get ready to leave Harmondsworth. He was asked if he would be “going quietly”.

Resigned to returning to Pakistan because he had no right to be in Britain, Ali saw a detainee resisting removal in the reception area. He was restrained and carried forcibly to a small security vehicle that was waiting.

Ali and the rest of the compliant detainees were led to a coach bound for Stansted airport where a flight was due to leave for Pakistan at 10.30pm.

It was just before 7pm when they started to smell the smoke. “It was pungent, causing coughing among the passengers,” Ali said. Then an escort officer noticed the flames spurting from the rear of the vehicle. She raised the alarm, shouting to the driver to pull over.

Ali says the driver seemed to ignore her, saying: “I know my business.” When other staff and detainees started to shout, he finally pulled the coach on to the hard shoulder.

By now, those on board could feel the heat from the fire and panic set in, with staff and detainees alike shouting that they had to leave the vehicle. Several detainees said that they immediately feared an explosion.

Instead of evacuating the vehicle immediately, Ali said, one Tascor officer produced a large holdall and started handing out handcuffs to his colleagues. He said the cuffing process took three to four minutes. Staff were fumbling as the fire became stronger.

Eventually, all the occupants left the coach and stood in a huddle only about 20ft from the coach, which was now burning fiercely.

The detainees begged to be moved further away. As they did so, one detainee, Mohammed, slipped, injuring his wrist. He was later taken to Hillingdon hospital, where a fractured wrist was diagnosed. “My wrist is very sore, but it is nothing to what could have happened,” he said. “We could all have been killed.”

They were about 40ft away from the flames when the vehicle exploded a couple of minutes later. “Some men were praying and thanking their maker for their deliverance,” Ali says.

Five fire crews attended the scene and used foam and water from a tanker to put out the blaze. The motorway was closed for several hours. Detainees waited about two hours for transportation back to Harmondsworth. As they waited they were kept in their handcuffs, which they said had been put on too tightly in the guards’ haste to restrain them.

The detainees said that they were in shock. “I am so traumatised,” said Faizal, who alleges he was tortured in Pakistan. “Everything I own burned in the coach – my birth certificate, my educational certificates, my mobile, my laptop, my clothes, everything. I cannot sleep. Every time I shut my eyes I see the burning coach.”

The detainees are now waiting at Harmondsworth for another deportation flight.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “There was an incident involving a Home Office vehicle on the evening of Wednesday 14 February. All those on board were safely evacuated from the vehicle. The welfare of all those in our care is of the utmost importance and we expect detainees to be treated with dignity and respect.”

A Mitie spokesperson said: “An oil/diesel spill was noticed in the vehicle lock some time after the vehicle had left for Stansted. However, we cannot confirm which vehicle this came from as multiple vehicles will have been through this area.”

The Capita spokesperson said: “We work in line with guidance set by the Home Office.” The spokesperson acknowledged that the deportees were handcuffed at some point, but refused to say when or where.

The names of detainees have been changed.