THE government must hold a public inquiry into alleged abuse at G4S-run Brook House immigration removal centre, the High Court heard today.

Two former detainees challenged a Home Office decision to ask the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) to hold an investigation.

The claimants, known as MA and BB, argued that the custody watchdog lacked enough powers to hold a proper probe.

The scandalous conditions at Brook House, near Gatwick, were exposed by BBC Panorama in 2017.

Secret filming appeared to show staff assaulting and abusing detainees, resulting in six people losing their jobs.

Nick Armstrong, representing BB, said: “The evidence from Panorama and from the multiple detainees who have provided accounts to date indicates the existence at Brook House of extensive, repeated and serious abuse, ill-treatment and bullying of vulnerable detainees.”

He said this included: “Assaults (carried out by staff for reasons of punishment, control and, perhaps most alarmingly, pleasure), threats (including to kill), deliberate humiliation, verbal abuse (including racist abuse), and failures to protect vulnerable and mentally ill detainees and detainees who may be children.”

Mr Armstrong added: “Significant abuse took place. No one reported it. Efforts were made to cover it up. And no monitoring body identified it.”

He warned that the PPO “has no powers to compel disclosure of documents or require witness participation and attendance”.

This was in “circumstances where numerous key witnesses are highly unlikely to participate, having been dismissed, resigned or disciplined due to serious allegations of wrongdoing, in many cases capable of amounting to criminal conduct.”

The detainees’ challenge is supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.