Workers accuse new company managing Australia’s immigration detention centres of running them ‘like a prison’

Management & Training Corporation, a US private prison operator has been accused by workers of deliberately understaffing Australia’s onshore immigration detention centres. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

Australia’s new onshore immigration detention operator has been accused by workers and their union of unsafe and “deliberate” levels of understaffing, as the number of critical incidents increase in the centres.

This sharp reduction in staffing levels has prompted a rare public intervention from the Australian government, which said it was aware of “concerns” about its primary immigration detention contractor and signalled it has raised the issue with the company.