Immigration detainees whose coach caught fire as it took them to a deportation flight were handcuffed by escort staff before they were allowed to get off, in breach of Home Office rules, eight of the detainees have said.
In interviews with the Guardian, the detainees said that just minutes before the vehicle exploded and as fumes filled the cabin, one of the guards started handing out handcuffs to his colleagues.
After the cuffing process, which took several minutes, staff working for the Capita-owned security firm Tascor took the detainees off the bus, they said. They were instructed to stand about 40ft away on the M25 as the vehicle exploded.
Home Office rules say that restraint during transit could amount to degrading or inhuman treatment, in breach of the European convention on human rights, unless risk is properly assessed and the use of restraints fully justified.
The fire on the bus was widely reported last week, but the Guardian has learned that the passengers were a mix of refused asylum seekers and other migrants, being taken from Harmondsworth immigration removal centre for a flight to Pakistan.
There were 10 detainees onboard the coach. As well as the four quoted in this article, the Guardian was able to contact four others. Speaking by telephone in separate calls, all of them maintained that they had been handcuffed before they were allowed to leave the vehicle. The detainees said a security guard had stood at the entrance while they were restrained and the back of the vehicle was on fire.
They were handcuffing the detainees instead of leading us to safety, said Ali, one of the group. I feared for the lives of all the people on board.
A Capita spokesperson said it was factually inaccurate that when the fire was identified the individuals were then handcuffed.
Ali said that he had been told by security officers that the coach had been known to be leaking oil when it arrived at Harmondsworth. The bus was bound to its fate, he said. Three different officers have told me that oil was leaking from the back of the bus and there was a puddle of oil on the ground. They told me that managers here at Harmondsworth knew about it and they should have stopped us from getting on that bus, but they did not.
A spokesperson for Mitie, the outsourcing company that runs Harmondsworth, said that while a leak had been noticed it had not been clear whether it came from the vehicle that caught fire.
The detainees described panic and chaos on the coach. Faizal, a rejected asylum seeker who was also on the coach, told the Guardian: We couldnt breathe on the coach because of the fumes. People were screaming: Open the door, open the door. But they wouldnt.
The detailed picture of the fire supplied by detainees will be seen by critics of the immigration removal centre system as further evidence of inhumane practices after longstanding controversy over its operation. Human rights campaigners have frequently expressed concerns about the mistreatment of detainees across the system.