My following article appears in Australian news outlet, Crikey: Let’s talk about boycotting Australia. Australia’s war on asylum seekers at Manus Island, Nauru and other privatised detention facilities on the Australian mainland is seemingly unstoppable by traditional means. While condemned by every human rights organisation in the world, Canberra is unmoved. The demonisation of (mostly)…
Showing all posts tagged Serco
How failing British multinational Serco wants to expand its reach
My investigation for Australian publication Crikey: British multinational Serco is angling for more work in Australia. In August, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the New South Wales government was preparing to start outsourcing public housing in 2017, with about a third to be transferred to non-government groups over four years. Serco told what was…
Austerity-crazed Britain brings misery to many
Britain’s conservative government is proudly dismantling many established social services. Austerity on crack. The Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown tackles this in her weekly column and references my new book, Disaster Capitalism: While we are on asylum-seekers and refugees, let’s look into the places these people are incarcerated. Antony Loewenstein’s Disaster Capitalism exposes the way profits…
Disaster capitalism surrounds us every day
My story in Al Jazeera America: When an earthquake struck Nepal in April, thousands of locals died in the carnage. But many foreigners had far more luck as members of Global Rescue, a company committed to rescuing its clients from dangerous environments. “Why shouldn’t we be able to hire private armies to ensure our safe…
How privatised immigration firms get away with murder in Australia
My investigation in New Matilda: Despite a mountain of transgressions – including spying on a federal senator – Transfield somehow got a new contract. Antony Loewenstein takes up the story. Barely a day goes by without new allegations of sexual assault,… self-harm, violence or dysfunction at Australia’s privatised, immigration centres. Whether on the mainland, Nauru or…
Radio New Zealand interview on British multinational Serco
British multinational Serco is causing trouble in New Zealand, with behaviour at its privately-run prisons fraught with violence and unaccountability. It’s the normal Serco way and only fools will be surprised. I was interviewed by Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Morning (on a very bad phone line in South Sudan) on the company’s inability and unwillingness…
Serco bleeding but helped by Australian immigration contract
My article appears today in The Guardian: British multinational Serco is in trouble. After years as the favoured outsourcer for public services in Britain and countless countries around the world, the latest figures show a financial crash of unprecedented proportions. The firm announced it is writing down its business value by nearly AU $3bn with…
The dark reality of Britain's privatised immigration system
My weekly Guardian column: Yarl’s Wood is a Serco run immigration removal centre in Milton Ernest, built in an industrial park more than an hour from central London.… Allegations have been made against Serco staff, including of sexual assaults by guards against detainees, yet the British government continues to use the facility. During a visit inside…
Dangers of corporate sponsorship for cultural and artistic events
My weekly Guardian column is below: The 19th… Biennale of Sydney… opens on 21 March. There will be a… range of artists… displaying all manners of artistic endeavour. So far, so good. But a major sponsor is Transfield, a company used by the Australian Federal Government to handle refugee services and which therefore profits from the asylum seeker industry…