Security company G4S knew asylum seekers were having their doors marked in red paint four years ago leaving them exposed to racism and hatred, MPs heard today.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz and former cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael slammed G4S after it emerged that one of the company's subcontractors, Jomast, had painted homes red so employees knew which were occupied by asylum seekers.

Would-be refugees from Syria and eastern Europe said they had been targeted as a result, with one woman claiming that yobs shouted: 'F*** you dirty women. Get out of our country.'

Another said a National Front logo was carved in their red front door.

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Controversial: Security company G4S knew asylum seekers were having their doors marked in red paint four years ago leaving them exposed to racism and hatred, MPs heard today. Pictured: Mohammed Bagher Bayzavi, an Iranian asylum seeker who lives in a house with a red door in Union Street, Middlesbrough

Torment: The asylum seeker said he has been repeatedly targeted by locals because of his door

Both MPs called for further action than the audit promised by Immigration Minster James Brokenshire because G4S is consistently in the public eye for 'all the wrong reasons'.

Mr Vaz said his committee had regularly expressed concerns about the Government 'Compass' contract to run accommodation for asylum seekers, which G4S controlled in Middlesbrough where the red paint concerns were raised.

During an urgent question on the matter, Mr Vaz told the Commons: 'G4S as this House knows are serial offenders in respect of these breaches.

'Though with the greatest will in the world in your committee to make sure something is going to be done, I don't believe that an audit is going to be sufficient.

'If there is an acceptance that these doors were painted in a certain colour, that is appalling and it should have been discussed and discovered earlier.

'Will you undertake that when that audit is complete you will either give a statement to the House or come to the select committee with its findings?'

Mr Brokenshire replied: 'There is a practice amongst some social housing providers to actually paint in a particular colour for maintenance issues but it's precisely those factors that I will want to understand as part of the audit of not simply what has happened in the North East but also on the inspection regimes and the processes that we have in place to identify that appropriate issues and standards and complaints are being dealt with.'

Meanwhile, Mr Carmichael said G4S knew for four years about the practice but did not do anything about it because they did not receive complaints.

Concerns: Asylum seeker James Momoh, 40 from Liberia, outside the red door of his home in Middlesbrough

Issue: Asylum seeker Amos Kadema, 41 from Zimbabwe, outside the red door of his home in Middlesbrough

Upset: Mohammad Bagher Beyzavi from Iran sits in the window of his red-door property in Middlesbrough

The Liberal Democrat MP said: 'It's in fact my understanding that concerns about this practice of painting doors red were first raised in 2012 by my Liberal Democrat colleague and then-Middlesbrough councillor Suzanne Fletcher.

'She's pursued that issue doggedly ever since and it's largely due to her efforts that the matter has now come to light today.

'She was told by G4S that they had received no complaints so there was no need to take any action.

'That could manifestly not be the case and does that not raise in your mind perhaps a suspicion at least that an audit is somewhat less than is going to be required?

'Yet again G4S have come to public attention for all the wrong reasons and yet again they have been found wanting.'

Mr Brokenshire replied: 'This issue of complaints and when this was first known to G4S was something that I did discuss with the chief executive this morning and it is a matter that he has committed to examine further and get to the bottom (of) for their satisfaction as to how they have handled this matter.

'But it is a question I think of doing the audit that I have commissioned urgently to see what the situation on the ground is, to understand how the inspection and audit regime has been conducted thus far.

'And obviously I will want to reflect on what that tells me.'

Outrage: Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz (left) and former cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael slammed G4S for letting subcontractors, Jomast, paint homes belonging to asylum seekers red

Policy: Asylum seekers in poor parts of Middlesbrough have been forced to live in houses with red doors

It comes after asylum seekers forced to live in the '1930s Germany' conditions launched an impassioned plea to be allowed to change the colour doors of their homes.

Hundreds of refugees have been living in the instantly recognisable homes, in a move which has been compared with the yellow stars that the Nazis forced Jews to wear.

The coloured doors make homes occupied by the refugees in poor areas of Middlesbrough easy to identify and have been blamed for numerous attacks in which people were victims of racist abuse.

Asylum seeker Mohammed Bagher Bayzavi, 58, said that the home he lives in - which is owned by property firm Jomast - has been targeted by local youths throwing eggs and bottles, and prostitutes who knock on the windows in the middle of the night.

'Everyone here knows the red colour is Jomast,' he said today. 'Change the colour - anything but red.'

Mr Bayzavi, who fled Iran three years ago, said neighbours whose homes did not have red doors were not targeted.

Both Jomast and G4S, which holds the Government contract to house asylum seekers, insisted that there was no deliberate policy to make them live in houses with red doors - but today agreed to repaint the homes in order to remove any possibly stigma.

A former local MP compared the red paint to the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. Ian Swales, previously Liberal Democrat MP for Redcar, said the doors were a 'mark of separation' that 'reminds you of Germany in the 1930s'.

In February 2014 he confronted a G4S executive over the issue during a parliamentary hearing, but the policy was not changed.

After the latest revelations, Mr Swales said: 'I thought it was shocking. I assumed the management of G4S would be equally shocked and would do something about it. To find out nearly two years later that nothing's been done is appalling.'

Rundown: In some areas the only houses not boarded up are those where asylum seekers are living

Andy McDonald, Middlesbrough's Labour MP, added the red doors were 'a way of marking people out that is reprehensible'.

The Home Office has launched an urgent review into the issue and is due to issue a report within a few weeks.

The properties are owned by Jomast, a subcontractor for G4S owned by Stuart Monk, who is paid millions of pounds a year to provide accommodation for thousands of asylum seekers. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Mr Monk is worth an estimated £175million.

Asylum claimants at more than a dozen Middlesbrough addresses said that Jomast's red doors were an easy target for racists - and described incidents including the smearing of dog excrement against doors, and eggs and stones being thrown at windows.

A National Front symbol was scratched into the front door of one house another and at another, women cowered inside as thugs hurled racist jibes, calling them 'dirty women' and shouting, 'Get out of our country.'

'They put us behind red doors. When people see them, everyone knows it means asylum seekers. It's like saying we're not the same as you,' one man told The Times.

The man, who lives in a terrace house with Liberian James Momoh, 40, claimed they had been targeted on several occasions.

He said he was attacked by a man with a ‘ten inch knife’ as he left his home in August.

‘He tried to kill me,’ he said. ‘He followed me into the house and I shut the kitchen door to stop him attacking me and rang 999. This red door affects our life.

‘When we open it, we have to watch our back in case we meet someone trying to do something. We have had eggs thrown at the door, they bang on the windows and we get abuse.’

Stigma: Afghans Ajmal Kadari, left, and Rahumullah Ahmedi, right, said that asylum seekers were recognisable thanks to their red doors

Property: Yazid Bahi, from Algeria, is another asylum seeker living in a house with a red door

Fears: Manthri Ranasing, from Sri Lanka, said he and his family were racially abused once a week

An Afghan migrant said that when he and his housemate repainted their red door white, workers from Jomast said it was 'against company policy' and painted it red again.

Manthri Ranasing, a refugee from Sri Lanka, said he and his family had suffered racial abuse on a weekly basis and was also burgled by yobs.

The 39-year-old came to Britain with his wife Sagarika, 37, and two children Abhisheler, 11, and seven-year-old Othini, because he fear for his life in his war-torn homeland.

He said today: 'I like it here, my wife and I volunteer at the local Methodist group, we feel part of the community but some times we don't feel safe and that is because of the red door on our home.

'We know that round here if you see a red door you know an asylum seeker is living in that house, it has made us a target for people who are racist.

'I have people banging on my door saying we don't belong here three or four times a month, it is horrible and very disrespectful.

'One time we returned home and the laptop had been stolen and the door had been broken. I call the police every time something happens but there is nothing they can do.'

He compared the red door policy to the Nazi yellow star, adding: 'I think there should be plans put in place to change the colour of the doors - and in the long term, to address the visa system.'

Street: Part of the area of Middlesbrough where a lot of asylum seekers have been sent to live

Demolition: Much of the neighbourhood is set to be knocked down and redeveloped in coming years

Bawav Ali and Hatam Jwamevi, two young Iranians who fled on foot to the UK, now live with six other men in a small Middlesbrough home.

Mr Ali, 24, said: 'I feel that living behind a red door will make us unsafe, we are worried about what will happen as a lot of people do not like that we are from another country.

'It would make us feel a lot safer if our door was changed as it would not make us stand out as much.'

He added: 'We are living in fear in our homes that we are going to be attacked, but that is still 200 times better than being in Iran.'

Anger: Former MP Ian Swales compared the policy to the yellow stars worn by Jews in Nazi Germany

Mr Jwamevi, 18, added: 'Everyone around here knows that if you have a red door you are an asylum seeker. I am worried people will shout words at us, call us names or get more violent.'

Indian DJ Jagjeet Singh, 31, who has lived for four years in a semi-derelict street with his wife and four children for four years, said he would change the colour of the door if he was allowed to by the landlord.

'Some people bang on the door, the windows, it's not good,' he said. 'I hate [it], but what can I do?'

A few asylum seekers insisted they had not had problems with their neighbours despite living in houses which have the distinctive red doors.

Afghan Ajmal Kadari, 37, said: 'I like it here. I think they are wonderful people.'

Several neighbours expressed disgust at the way the asylum seekers had been targeted by yobs because of their red doors.

Local resident Joan Wilson, 85, said: 'To put a marker on them like red doors is just wrong, I have lived on a street with many aslyum seekers who come and go but I can say they are the most welcoming and friendly people I have ever met.'

And Kenny Slater, 65, said he had seen thugs shouting, 'Get back to where you came from,' to refugees who could be identified by their housing.

But one neighbour said that there was no deliberate policy to stigmatise asylum seekers, claiming the landlords simply 'bought a whole load of paint', and added that local youths did not just torment refugees.

Mr Brokenshire, the immigration minister, said that he was deeply concerned by the findings and announced an urgent audit of asylum-seeker housing in the North-East.

He added: 'I expect the highest standards from our contractors. If we find any evidence of discrimination against asylum seekers it will be dealt with immediately as any such behaviour will not be tolerated.'

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, the minister said: 'I have spoken to the CEO of G4S this morning and he has assured me neither they nor Jomast have a policy which states asylum seeker property should be identified in this way.

'Jomast does accept the company uses red paint across its portfolio of properties.'

During the ensuing debate, Mr Carmichael pointed out that G4S had known about the red doors for four years without taking action because they 'had received no complaints'.

The Liberal Democrat MP added: 'Yet again G4S have come to public attention for all the wrong reasons and yet again they have been found wanting.'

Mr McDonald, who represents the local area, said it would be 'simply not acceptable' for the contractors to take up to three months to repaint the doors, as has been suggested.

Controversy: Contractor G4S has promised to repaint the doors of asylum seekers' homes (file photo)

A G4S director said last week that fewer than 20 per cent of Jomast's properties were used for asylum housing. A company source said that such houses had front doors of many colours.

However, of 168 Jomast houses identified by The Times in two of Middlesbrough's poorest districts, 155 had red front doors.

When reporters spoke to people living at 66 of the red-door properties, it emerged that 62 were home to asylum seekers. Of the four non-asylum properties, two housed former asylum seekers and two were home to British citizens.

Newcastle City Council is today checking all the Jomast properties in the city which house asylum seekers to see whether they have the same red doors as in Middlesbrough.

CHEQUERED PAST OF GIANT OUTSOURCING FIRM G4S G4S is one of Britain's biggest outsourcing firms, holding a large number of multi-million-pound Government contracts to provide security and other services. However, the company has become embroiled in multiple controversies over the past few years even before the latest row over asylum seekers living in houses with red doors. In 2012, G4S was forced to admit that it was unable to fulfil its contract to provide security at the London Olympics, with 3,500 troops having to be called in at the last minute to cover the shortfall. The next year, an inquest jury found that Angolan deportee Jimmy Mubenga was unlawfully killed after he died while being transported home by G4S guards on a British Airways flight in October 2010. The three guards were acquitted of manslaughter. The company was also criticised in 2014 after it emerged that it had used residents of immigration detention centres as cheap labour, paying them just £1 an hour to work as cleaners. And last week three G4S employees were allegedly caught on camera abusing inmates of a young offenders' institute in Kent. Advertisement

Jomast and G4S, which has a contractual duty to 'recognise that the safety and security of [asylum seekers] must not be jeopardised', have consistently denied that most asylum claimants in Middlesbrough are in properties with red doors.

A spokesman for G4S said it was 'grotesque' to equate the colours of certain exterior doors with the suggestion of enforced segregation or apartheid.

He said: 'There is categorically no policy for G4S to house asylum seekers specially in houses painted with red front doors.

'Our subcontractor Jomast has no policy to paint asylum seeker doors a particular colour, although they do accept that the majority of their doors, for both private and asylum accommodation, are painted red.

'Although we have received no complaints or requests on this issue from asylum seekers we house, in light of the concerns raised Jomast has agreed to address the issue by repainting front doors in the area so that there is no predominant colour.

'Our asylum accommodation is inspected frequently by the Home Office and has been found to meet the required standards.'

Local resident Suzanne Fletcher said that she had repeatedly tried to raise the issue over the past four years but had been unable to persuade the contractors to change their policy.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'In September 2012 we asked G4S if they would do something about the red doors and they replied that they had no intention of doing anything about it.'

Ms Fletcher said the asylum seekers had been 'so worried that it marked them out' for attacks.

'The police obviously have done everything that they can do but because asylum seekers are so vulnerable, they are frightened of jeopardising their case, things haven't always been reported.'

After the news of the asylum seekers' red doors came to light today, campaigners were quick to condemn the policy.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna said: 'If, following the Home Office audit, these claims are proven, this story is a scar on our country.'

Steve Symonds of Amnesty International UK added: 'The fact that asylum seekers can be identified by the colour of their front doors further stigmatises people who are already marginalised, and for many it could have echoes of the persecution they have fled.'

Lindsay Cross, who runs a refugee charity in the North-East, said she was 'shocked that it didn't occur to anyone that it was a bad idea'.

The asylum seekers are not allowed to work while they wait to find out whether they will be able to stay in Britain, but are given housing, provided by private firms but funded by the Government, and an allowance of £37 a week.

No matter where they enter the UK, they are distributed around the country to ensure that no one area

Super-casinos, golf clubs... and asylum seekers: The £235million property empire of tycoon whose firm houses would-be refugees

Boss: The houses are owned by Jomast, a company controlled by property tycoon Stuart Monk, pictured

Property tycoon Stuart Monk has become one of the wealthiest people in the North-East of England by building up a £235million housing empire over more than four decades.

He founded his company Jomast, wholly owned by himself and his family, in 1971 when he was barely out of school and the firm now makes millions of pounds in profit for the Monks every year.

But the businessman has not escaped controversy - he has been accused of profiting from the poorest members of society by snapping up State funding.

In addition, he has been involved in a number of major projects which have not come to fruition, including a super-casino and the restoration of a historic theatre.

He today insisted that he had not built his business on the backs of the poor, telling Sky News: 'We think this has been blown out of all proportion.

'I have been in business for 45 years doing a very good job - we employ a lot of people, the profits we have made have not been from asylum seekers.'

Mr Monk, 69, lives in a luxurious manor house on the edge of the North York Moors - a far cry from the run-down streets where hundreds of asylum seekers are housed in his properties.

The property, which dates back hundreds of years, boasts extensive landscape gardens and was described in a book of 1808 as 'a neat and desirable country residence for a genteel family'.

He shares the house with his wife Jennifer, 63, who is the only other director of Jomast Limited.

The couple are believed to have two adult children, Stephen and Jane, who both work for Mr Monk's firm as well as holding sizeable shares in the company.

Contrast: Mr Monk lives in this manor house on the edge of the North York Moors with his family

Project: Mr Monk inside the Globe Theatre in Stockton, one of several plans he has been involved in which have not come to fruition

The family's wealth is estimated at £175million, putting them at number 11 in the latest Sunday Times Rich List for the North-East.

Jomast, which owns £235million of assets and made a £9million profit in the latest financial year, is spearheading efforts to regenerate the rundown Gresham area of Middlesbrough.

But while local residents wait for the plans for come to fruition, dozens of houses have been given over to asylum seekers waiting to see whether or not they will be allowed to stay in Britain.

Mr Monk's company was contracted by G4S to provide accommodation for every asylum seeker in the North-East.

It is not known exactly how much Jomast is making from its asylum seeker tenants, but if the company is paid the same as the equivalent landlords in other parts of Britain it is likely to be making at least £8million a year.

Despite the profits made by the firm from asylum seekers, the company prefers to advertise its portfolio of luxury properties such as the Wynyard Golf Club in County Durham and the slick £100million Hartlepool Bay development.

Other high-profile projects launched - but never completed - by Jomast include the construction of Middlesbrough's first super-casino.

Property: Colin Montgomerie playing at the Wynyard Golf Club in County Durham, owned by Jomast

The company was given the licence to build the £32million complex four years ago, but last year the city's mayor admitted that the completion of the casino, designed to attract jobs and tourism, was 'a bit unlikely'.

Another Jomast project currently on pause is the refurbishment of the historic, art deco Globe Theatre in Stockton, which has already had £400,000 of Lottery money spent on it but now seems to have been delayed indefinitely.

The GMB trade union recently named Mr Monk as one of several multi-millionaire landlord to make thousands from taxpayer-funded housing benefit.

Local authority figures revealed that he raked in £210,000 a year from tenants who had to have their rent subsidised by the State.

Jomast is accused of no wrongdoing over the asylum seeker furore, or any of its other projects.

In a statement issued today through a Newcastle-based PR agency, Mr Monk said: 'Our accommodation is inspected frequently by the Home Office and has been found to meet or exceed the required standards.

'As many landlords will attest, paint is bought in bulk for use across all properties. It is ludicrous to suggest that this constitutes any form of discrimination, and offensive to make comparisons to a policy of apartheid in Nazi Germany.