Source: Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, New York Times, April 1, 2012
...Immigration control has traditionally been viewed as an inalienable sovereign function of the state. But today migration management has increasingly been taken over by private contractors. Proponents of privatization have been keen to argue that the use of contractors does not mean that governments lose control. Yet, privatization introduces a corporate veil that blurs both public oversight and legal accountability....
...G4S's success in this market shows that deportation, detention and border control have become big business. Boeing's current contract to set up and operate a high-tech border surveillance system along the United States-Mexico border is worth $1.3 billion and involves nearly 100 subcontractors. The Florida-based Geo Group -- one of G4S's main competitors -- manages 7,000 detention beds in the United States and, until recently, at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, where migrants intercepted in the Caribbean are transferred. N.G.O.s and international organizations profit, too. In 2010, the International Organization for Migration was paid $265 million to assist governments in returning migrants to their home countries, among other activities....
...Even if governments want to re-establish state control over migration, it isn't so easy. Political promises to renationalize immigration detention centers in Britain have so far remained unfulfilled despite repeated reports of abuse and mistreatment. And privatization, once pursued, is difficult to reverse....
...Today, government outsourcing has given rise to an industry that encompasses nearly every aspect of migration management in countries across the globe. This shift comes at a price: It eliminates government accountability and runs roughshod over the rights of those subjected to private corporations' control. And unless governments reassert control over what used to be a core sovereign function of the state, many more Jimmy Mubengas are likely to die.
