Wilson departure a ‘serious blow’

AUSTRALIA – An Australian NGO says Wilson Security’s announcement that it will not renew its contract for security at detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru is yet another serious blow for offshore detention.

Wilson Security’s decision follows the announcement by the service provider, Broadspectrum, earlier this year that it, too, would abandon the asylum seeker processing centres.

The announcement leaves the Australian government without a service provider or security firm for its controversial offshore detention regime.

Matthew Phillips is the human rights campaign director at GetUp, an NGO which, for the past year, has been trying to rally communities to not do business with companies involved in offshore detention.

He said the announcement was significant because it made clear that businesses no longer wanted to be associated with the detention centres.

“Wilson have effectively washed their hands of the government’s failed policy on Manus Island and Nauru,” said Phillips. What that means is that they’re potentially foregoing a very large amount of revenue because they realise that their reputation can’t withstand such exposure to complicity with abuse.”

Matthew Phillips said Wilson Security should still be scrutinised for the allegations of abuse against its guards, ideally in court.

The announcement by Wilson follows a decision on August 9 by Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial Services, which now owns more than 50 per cent of ASX-listed Broadspectrum, formerly Transfield, to end work for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in October next year.

“In relation to the provision of services at the regional processing centres in Nauru and Manus province, these services were not a core part of the valuation and the acquisition rationale of the offer, and it is not a strategic activity in Ferrovial’s portfolio,” the company said.

Papua New Guinea has already said it will close the Manus Island detention centre after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in April it was illegal.

Both Ferrovial and Wilson Security confirmed they would not provide future service to detention centres. - RNZI