Immigration bosses to be quizzed after haven seekers were "beaten" by guards UK headlines The Observer

Yarl"s Wood immigration apprehension centre in Bedfordshire. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA Archive

Senior Home Office officials will be questioned this week over allegations that women inside Yarl"s Wood immigration apprehension centre were assaulted by staff utilizing demonstration shields.

The Observer has collected a array of testimonies from detainees inside the Bedfordshire centre who claimed they had witnessed women being knocked about and harmed during a reeling this month.

One image, taken inside Yarl"s Wood on a mobile phone, reveals endless bruising to a woman"s shoulder and legs allegedly caused by staff during the incident on 8 February, days after dozens of haven seekers instigated a craving set upon over the length of their detention. Another picture shows injuries to a detainee"s finger after a ensure had allegedly slammed a window on her hand.

On Tuesday, Lin Homer, arch senior manager of the UK Border Agency, and John Vine, the agency"s arch inspector, are approaching to be questioned by the home affairs name cabinet over the claims, that are denied by staff.

Keith Vaz, authority of the committee, said: "This justification is intensely concerning. If the allegations are correct, afterwards it might be suitable for a military investigation. We are fervent to settle what just is going on in Yarl"s Wood."

The craving set upon will come in the fourth week tomorrow. The allegations of abuse are being carefully thought about by London law firms Birnberg Peirce and Fisher Meredith.

Jacqui McKenzie of Birnberg Peirce said: "I have oral to a customer of cave in Yarl"s Wood and she has seen the bruising herself from the incident on 8 February. There is an ambience of genuine tragedy there."

The images of the bruising show the injuries allegedly postulated during the incident by Denise McNeil, a 35-year-old Jamaican, who claims she was set upon by staff and, given the disturbance, has been changed to London"s Holloway prison.

A Home Office orator pronounced that observers from the centre"s Independent Monitoring Board had been benefaction during the incident and had seen no justification to await the claims. He combined that CCTV footage had suggested nothing. It is additionally accepted that Bedfordshire military were called to the incident and monitored the incident but receiving any action.

A orator for Serco, the in isolation organisation that runs Yarl"s Wood, last night discharged the allegations as "unfounded and untrue". He added: "The incident on 8 Feb occurred since the staff intervened to forestall 4 women from stability to brag alternative residents in to blank meals."

Participants in the craving set upon explain to have been hold in a mezzanine for some-more than 6 hours. Several women explain to have fainted and one to have suffered an asthma conflict prior to multiform detainees forced open an window and attempted to shun prior to being confronted by guards. Meme Jallow, 26, from Gambia, who has been inside Yarl"s Wood for 7 months, said: "A lady called Denise was by the windows. One military officer took her and set upon her by the face."

Another craving striker, a 37-year-old from Nigeria who asked to sojourn unknown for fright of her haven box being foul reviewed, said: "The security went outward and used shields similar to they do when there is a war. That is what they used to pound one of the women who was outside."

Adeola Omotosho, 44, from Nigeria, who was expelled from Yarl"s Wood 3 days after the incident, yesterday described how she had been harmed during the protest. "The officers sealed the window opposite my finger. It was unequivocally unpleasant and I was unequivocally draining heavily, but they still refused to open the window. So I called an ambulance, but it was not authorised to come in."

Serco sources pronounced that ambulance staff had been authorised on site during the criticism but paramedics were not compulsory since the majority poignant damage was Omotosho"s fingernail injury.

A orator denied shields had been used to set upon or move women and pronounced they had usually been placed opposite the open window in sequence to "secure the area".

Many detainees additionally complained they have suffered extremist abuse, that the centre denies. Omotosho added: "Black monkeys is what they call us. They don"t similar to us at all. They discuss it us to go behind to the countries."

Cristal Amiss from Black Women"s Rape Action Project, that is ancillary the detainees, said: "We have oral to over 50 women and have listened wholly unchanging reports of extremist abuse, threats and alternative violence."

Frances Swaine, head of the human rights dialect at London law organisation Leigh Day, said: "The incident at Yarl"s Wood has been removing gradually worse over the past couple of months, and shows no signs of alleviation – and the craving set upon has brought to the front the genuine issues."

A series of the detainees pronounced they had been traumatised by the incident, with a minute from one saying that 3 alternative women detainees had been held perplexing to kill themselves.

YARL"S WOOD: A HISTORY OF CONTROVERSY

Yarl"s Wood non-stop nearby Clapham on the hinterland of Bedford on nineteen Nov 2001. It is now the vital removal centre for women and families. It has 405 beds of that 284 are for women and 121 for families. The centre has been stubborn by problems.

February 2002: The centre was ravaged by glow after a demonstration by detainees protesting after a 55-year-old lady was physically calm by staff. Five people were harmed in the blaze.

March 2004: The Prisons and Probations Ombudsman published a inform in to allegations of racism, abuse and violence, formed on nineteen claims done by an clandestine contributor for the Daily Mirror. The inform found justification of a series of extremist incidents.

February 2006: The Chief Inspector of Prisons cursed the peculiarity of health caring for detainees at the centre.

April 2007: Serco took over the complex.

May 2007: Reports of craving set upon involving some-more than 100 women.

April 2009: The Children"s Commissioner for England published a inform divulgence that youngsters were being denied obligatory healing diagnosis and were at risk of critical harm.