UNIONS will hit out this week at the use of Scottish public-sector pension funds to invest in firms which bankroll US border jails.

Unison and Unite are issuing the formal complaint after it emerged that Scots hold £138 million in funds which have huge investments in CoreCivic and GEO Group, which have separated hundreds of children from their parents at the southern US border.

The children, many of them infants and toddlers, have been put into detention centres while their parents await prosecution or are deported for attempting to cross the border under a new law that was enacted by US President Donald Trump in May.

Unison head of policy and public affairs Dave Watson told the Sunday Post yesterday that the issue of Scottish workers’ pensions being used to invest in these operations will be flagged up at the union’s pension conference on Friday August 17.

The Post revealed last month that Strathclyde Pension Fund, which manages pensions for 230,000 Scottish public service workers, has £52m invested in Blackrock, Vanguard, Aviva, St James’s Place, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo – all of which fund the US prison operators.

Lothian Pension Fund, with more than 65,000 members, has investments worth £28m with General Dynamics, a multinational defence firm with US contracts to process migrants aged under 16, and Wells Fargo. North East Scotland Pension Fund has investments worth £58m in Blackrock, St James’s Place, Aviva and Vanguard.