For Your Information
"GardaWorld -- Summary of Findings" Report
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)[1] submitted a report on June 20, 2023 to the Denver, Colorado Mayor's Office and City Council Members. AFSC's Colorado office led and won a campaign to prevent the city from contracting with GardaWorld to provide sheltering services for Denver's newcomers. Below, are excerpts from the report.
Company Summary
GardaWorld [...] operates across 45 countries. In addition to providing security guards to government, [...] it sells security and surveillance equipment and offers armored car, police support, facility management, and other security-related services.
Involvement in Conflict Zones
GardaWorld and its subsidiary Aegis Defense Services (doing business as GardaWorld Federal Services) contract with the U.S. Department of State and other government agencies to provide armed security guards to "high-threat areas" around the world. Since the early 2000s, GardaWorld's so-called "bands of armed men" have been deployed at military bases, embassies and consulates, oilfields, and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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GardaWorld has also been implicated in cases of human trafficking, corruption, illegal weapons use, and excessive force.
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GardaWorld has operated and currently operates in several other conflict zones, including Chad, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine, and Yemen. The company's operations in these regions have similarly been rife with misconduct.
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Involvement in "Migrant Sheltering"/Immigrant Jails
Since 2015, the company has provided detention and transporation services to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for arresting, jailing, and deporting migrants in Canada. Under "Detention Programs" contracts with the CBSA, GardaWorld has overseen the detention and transportation of immigrants held at the British Columbia Immigration Holding Centre (BCIHC) in Vancouver and the Laval Immigration Holding Centre (IHC) in Quebec, in immigration "day cells" located in Vancouver's Library Square; and at several other locations.
Unsafe conditions at these immigrant detention centers have long been reported by human rights organizations and Canadian news media. In January 2022, for example, an immigrant held at the IHC died after being found in "medical distress." In the year following the onset of COVID-19, detained immigrants went on hunger strike at least three times to protest inhumane and "life-threatening" conditions -- a lack of COVID-19 safety protocols and mental health resources, the use of solitary confinement, and limited access to bathroom and telephone use -- at the same detention centre. In addition to failing to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols, GardaWorld security guards reportedly retaliated against hunger strikers by conducting frequent, disruptive searches and refusing individuals access to water.
GardaWorld also operates several controversial "migrant shelters" in the U.S., including the Fort Bliss military base-turned-shelter in El Paso, Texas.
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In September 2022, the Health and Human Services Office (HHS) Inspector General released a 58-page report detailing inhumane conditions, deficient case management and "the deteriorating mental health of unaccompanied minors housed at the Fort Bliss Tent camp."
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Despite its "gross mismanagement" of Fort Bliss, GardaWorld was awarded a $2.7 million contract in July 2023 by El Paso County commissioners for transporting migrants released from immigration custody.
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Additionally, the company operates "emergency shelters" and migrant relocation programs in Chicago, Florida, and San Antonio.
GardaWorld has also expanded -- or attempted to expand -- its reach within the immigrant detention industry through acquisitions of and partnerships with other security and surveillance companies. In December 2022, GardaWorld risk management subsidiary Crisis24 announced a new partnership with Palantir, a high-tech surveillance company that, among other things, designs systems used to surveil immigrants and carry out immigration raids, deportations, and family separations. In February 2021, GardaWorld made an offer to acquire G4S, the world's largest security company, which conducts deportations and "detainee transportation" for the U.S. government and operates private prisons in Australia and the United Kingdom. GardaWorld did not win the bid to acquire G4S.
To read the complete report, click here.
Note
1. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was founded in 1917 by members of the Religious Society of Friends in the United States to provide young Quakers and other conscientious objectors to war with an opportunity "to perform a service of love in wartime. In the ensuing years, the Committee has continued to serve as a channel for Quaker concerns."
The Nobel Peace Prize 1947 was awarded jointly to Friends Service Council and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) "for their pioneering work in the international peace movement and compassionate effort to relieve human suffering, thereby promoting the fraternity between nations."
This article was published in
Volume 55 Number 7 - July-August 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/MS55073.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca