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Serco prison guard incident highlights ɫ������concerns about the non-government sector

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A RUNAWAY asylum seeker was arrested yesterday at the home of his female Serco prison guard lover who had just had his baby.

Detainee Aziz Ali Abdulkader is alleged to have fled from detention in Brisbane just over nine months ago and was ­rearrested at his lover’s home in Greenacre yesterday morning.

According to a Serco whistleblower, who informed 2GB’s Ray Hadley, immigration officials raided the home of the female prison guard only to find she was in hospital having just given birth to Abdulkader’s baby.

Abdulkader allegedly escaped on January 21st when he was being transferred from a Brisbane detention facility to hospital and has been on the run ever since.

He was taken back into custody yesterday morning.

Hadley told listeners that when immigration officers attempted to contact the woman “they were put through to the maternity ward where she had just given birth to a baby allegedly fathered by a detainee who has been on the run”.

The whistleblower told Hadley the woman’s sister was also a Serco guard.

“They are investigating fraud and rorts being performed by another Serco employee where government funds have been claimed illegitimately,” said Hadley.

Steve McMahon of the prison officers’ union said: “These are the things we were concerned about when private operators were allowed to run facilities that should be run by the government.

“The entry requirements to be employed by these private firms are nowhere near as high and the scrutiny levels are not as thorough. They make millions of dollars profit by cutting corners and not paying their staff properly,” he said.

British contractor Serco has a $1.8 billion government contract for work including guarding detention centres but has had a string of embarrassing failures and security breaches.

Last year, a Senate estimates hearing heard that in the previous year 63 people had escaped from detention.

In October, Serco was forced to retrain its Christmas Island staff after a guard was fired for having sex with a ­female detainee.

A Serco spokesman would not talk about the latest bungle. “While it is under investigation it is inappropriate for us to make any comment,” he said.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said: “The minister has been advised that the department has requested a formal investigation of the matter by the service provider. This matter is also being referred to the AFP.”