(CNN) A new class-action lawsuit alleges the private company behind one of the nation's largest immigrant detention centers makes millions in profits while forcing detainees to work for meager wages.

Detainees at the Stewart Detention Center in south Georgia generally make between $1 and $4 a day for tasks such as preparing food, mopping floors and doing laundry, according to the lawsuit , which describes the practice as a "deprivation scheme" and alleges it's a violation of human trafficking laws. Detainees who work double shifts can earn up to $8 a day.

Part of the scheme, according to the lawsuit: Depriving detainees of basic necessities like food, toothpaste, soap and toilet paper, so they have to work to pay for those items from the detention center's commissary.

A spokesman for CoreCivic, which owns and operates the facility, said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

But spokesman Jonathan Burns said work programs at all the company's immigration detention facilities are "completely voluntary" and operate in full compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement's standards and follow federally mandated reimbursement rates.

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