Controversial job advertisements offering salaries of up to £38,873 to teach cake decorating, ballooncraft and floristry to immigration detainees have been ordered to be scrapped by the Home Office after fierce criticism from opposition MPs who branded the spending “insane”.
Home Office Minister Seema Malhotra instructed facilities contractor Mitie to remove the positions from the Government’s Find A Job website on Thursday, stating: “We do not believe all these roles are necessary and have told the Home Office to speak to Mitie to remove them.”
The 32 full-time roles advertised at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre included a gym manager position offering £38,873.66 per annum, alongside positions for hairdressing, painting and decorating, and hospitality tutors, each paying more than £30,000 annually.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick led Conservative criticism of the positions, telling The Sun: “The Government has lost the plot. They’re so addicted to providing freebies that they’re even handing them out to foreign criminals when they’re about to be chucked out the country. It’s insane.”
“These jobs should be withdrawn immediately and replaced by security officers that can increase deportations,” Jenrick added.
The roles were advertised by Mitie, which operates Europe’s largest immigration removal centre under a £290 million contract signed with the Home Office in 2014. The company is contractually required to provide recreational services to detainees as part of its management responsibilities.
According to the job specifications, the hospitality and floristry tutor would “proactively promote, design, as necessary, and deliver workshops in relevant creative skills including Floristry, cake decorating, ballooncraft, arts and craft activities” at the male-only facility.
The gym manager position required the successful candidate to “promote and deliver meaningful gym activities within the sports halls, gym areas and courtyards” for detained individuals awaiting deportation proceedings.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp echoed the criticism, stating: “Hiring gym managers and ballooncraft tutors for people who must be deported is indefensible and must be stopped immediately. Labour are pouring taxpayers’ money into perks when every effort should be on deportations.”
The controversy comes as Home Office figures reveal 1,808 people are currently held in UK detention centres, with 20,919 individuals entering immigration detention in the year ending March 2025, a 10 per cent increase from the previous year.
Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre, combining the Colnbrook and Harmondsworth facilities, has a capacity of 965 residents, making it the largest such facility in Europe according to Mitie. The sites are strategically located near Britain’s busiest airport to facilitate removals.
However, a Mitie spokesperson defended the recreational programmes, stating: “The impact of these services was highlighted in the recent HMIP [HM Inspector of Prisons] report into Harmondsworth, which said that these provisions contributed to a greater overall focus on helping individuals to manage the stresses of detention.”
The defence comes despite a damning report published last year which found conditions at the West London immigration centre were “the worst” in the country, putting detainees at “imminent risk of harm” with “widespread” drug use and violence.
Latest estimates suggest Britain has the highest population of illegal migrants in Europe, with figures from 2017 putting the unauthorised migrant population between 700,000 and 900,000 people, though more recent data is unavailable.
The controversy follows increasing political pressure on immigration detention costs. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage this week vowed to deport as many as 600,000 people if elected, promising “large-scale raids” echoing the enforcement approach of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Donald Trump.
Unlike many European countries, the UK has no upper time limits on immigration detention, a policy that has drawn criticism from human rights groups and UN monitoring bodies. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees has previously recommended imposing a 28-day limit on detention.
Data shows Albanian nationals comprised the largest group entering detention in the year ending March 2025, with 5,603 cases representing 27 per cent of total entries, though this marked a 28 per cent decrease from the previous peak.
The recreational programmes at immigration removal centres have existed for years as part of efforts to meet international standards for detention conditions. However, the specific roles and salaries advertised drew immediate political backlash in the current climate of heightened immigration debate.
It remains unclear which specific positions Minister Malhotra has ordered to be removed, as several job advertisements remained live on the government recruitment website at the time of publication.
The Home Office has been contacted for further clarification on which roles will be retained and whether the recreational programmes themselves will continue in modified form.
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Image Credit:
Tug crossing arrival point – Tug Haven, Dover — photo by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, taken on 14 January 2022. Licensed under the United Kingdom Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL 3.0)
