“We are doing our upmost to ensure every person in managed quarantine gets the support they need and we’re urgently working to investigate complaints of this nature.”
A spokesman for security group G4S said: “The proportion of women to men in security officer roles at quarantine hotels is typical of the UK security industry and we are working to attract more women to the role.”
The allegations include one woman who said she received Facebook messages from a guard who knocked on her door after writing, “This evening I’ll come,” and another who said she had been wolf-whistled by G4S guards as she walked past a quarantine hotel.
The DHSC said: “Sexual harassment and abuse are abhorrent – and all allegations of this are taken extremely seriously… We will not hesitate to take immediate action to suspend staff where appropriate and report to the police if necessary.”
G4S said it had a “zero-tolerance approach” to staff who failed to treat people with respect, adding: “To provide additional assurance we have enhanced training, supervision and operational and safeguarding procedures. We have also established an oversight body comprising of women in senior executive roles.”
