Three British private security guards are being investigated after allegedly harming Colombian citizen Jose Gutierrez in an attempt to deport him from the country on October 6, the Guardian newspaper reports.
Agents from G4S, a private firm that runs immigration detention centers on behalf of the United Kingdom Border Agency, allegedly physically harmed Gutierrez while escorting him onto a British Airways flight.
Gutierrez said the agents assaulted him in the stairwell outside the airplane, where there were no cameras.
Gutierrez told the newspaper that he fled Colombia in 1992 to seek asylum in the U.K. after resisting attempts to join paramilitaries. His request for asylum was rejected by the European country after he received criminal charges for being involved in a fight, but he said he fears for his safety if he is forced to return to Colombia.
The Colombian was handcuffed and wearing a leg restraint as the guards escorted him to the airplane. They subsequently removed him from the flight after Gutierrez threatened to harm himself with razor blades he had smuggled on.
“One of the officers there saw me in a state and called the nurse who examined me,”Gutierrez said. “She said they should take me to accident and emergency.”
He was then brought to the hospital where his medical notes show he had swollen and tender wrists, soft tissue injury and bruising on his torso, back and arms.
Gutierrerrez is currently being held in Dover Detention Center and will be deported Monday.
The U.K. Border Agency is currently investigating the case, as is G4S. The incident took place days before an Angolan man collapsed and died during his deportation process, also carried out by agents of G4S.