A high court judge has made an 11th-hour intervention to prevent an immigration detainee who claims he has been abused by G4S from being forcibly removed from the UK.

The asylum seeker from Ivory Coast, who has been accepted by the Home Office as a survivor of torture in his home country, was due to be forcibly removed from the UK on a commercial flight at 11.35am on Thursday morning after officials decided it was now safe for him to return to his home country.

Just before midnight on Wednesday, however, a high court judge made an order preventing the Home Office from removing him after an emergency out-of-hours application by the man’s lawyers.

In their submission, his lawyers said: “The claimant is a victim of the abuse perpetrated by G4S staff at the immigration removal centre at Brook House. The claimant is a potential witness to any internal and external investigation or inquiry conducted by Her Majesty’s government/inspectorate into alleged widespread abuse by G4S staff against detainees at Brook House committed over a significant period of time and in the immigration detention estate more widely.

“Moreover, the claimant is also a potential witness to any criminal proceedings that may flow from the abuse reported and evidenced at Brook House and/or which he himself endured.”

Mr Justice Lavender noted that the man had not yet made a claim for damages, but in his order preventing deportation he said: “The argument that the applicant should not be removed while he pursues his threatened claim for damages may merit further consideration and therefore justifies some interim relief.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Where a decision has been made that a person does not require international protection, and there are no remaining rights of appeal or obstacles to their return, we expect individuals to return voluntarily to their home country.”

The move to deport the man comes days after the BBC aired a damning Panorama documentary which used undercover filming to expose abuse by some G4S guards who manage Brook House. Ten have been suspended in relation to the BBC revelations.

“Things are very bad in Brook House,” the man said. “I was recently summoned to a meeting with a Home Office official in Brook House, and before I went into the meeting I was searched by G4S to see if I had any drugs or weapons on me.



“I don’t take drugs, I don’t even smoke and I don’t have any weapons. G4S know that, but they really roughed me up in the search. I was very afraid. They mocked me and they scrunched up the file of documents about my case that I was carrying to take into the meeting with the Home Office officials. I didn’t bother to make a complaint about it because when detainees make complaints they go nowhere.”



He had witnessed a lot of abuse of detainees by G4S since he was brought to Brook House on 28 June, he said.



The man’s solicitor, Sheroy Zaq of Duncan Lewis, said: “This case concerns a man who was persecuted in his country of origin. He has since been subjected to further inhumane and degrading treatment within immigration detention, the responsibility for which falls squarely at the feet of our home secretary and G4S.

“It is somewhat sinister that the date upon which the home secretary decided that this client could be removed was the same date that the BBC aired its documentary concerning the level of abuse suffered by detainees at Brook House IRC. The complaints of our client as to the abuse that he has been subjected to are to date unanswered, and no doubt would have remained as such in the event that this injunction was not granted by the High Court on the eve of his proposed removal.”

Two notices have been circulated to Brook House detainees as a result of the Panorama exposé, one asking them to attend feedback meetings with management and the other warning of severe consequences for anyone found in possession of drugs.

Brook House, which holds up to 508 adult male detainees, was designed to take people for 72 hours, but some detainees have been held for months or even years.