United Nations Network on Migration: COVID-19 & Immigration Detention: What Can Governments and Other Stakeholders Do?
Concerns has been expressed (and here and here) about the spread of COVID-19 in immigration detention centers in the United States. With that concern in mind, the United Nations Network on Migration has released a paper “COVID-19 & Immigration Detention: What Can Governments and Other Stakeholders Do?”
The statement begins as follows:
“The United Nations Network on Migration is committed to supporting all partners in pursuit of the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration, recognizing that this cooperative framework provides an invaluable tool for ensuring all in society can contribute to a collective response to COVID-19 and are protected equally against its impact.
To that end this briefing is part of a series by the Network looking at different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they relate to migrants and their communities. The present document aims to provide practical guidance to States and other stakeholders in preventing and responding to COVID-19 in the context of immigration detention, highlighting instances of promising practices as useful models to draw from. . . .
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The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting people in vulnerable situations and marginalized communities. Migrants are no exception, particularly those in immigration detention. In the often overcrowded facilities where they are detained, misinformation is common, physical distancing impossible, hygiene and sanitation inadequate, and human resources stretched.
Once the novel coronavirus spreads in a place of detention, both migrants and staff are at high risk of infection and have limited access to personal protective equipment. Migrants often struggle to get adequate information and health services. The elderly, children, women, persons with disabilities and others face additional challenges. It is thus not surprising that tension has recently spiraled in immigration detention centers due to rising anxiety among detainees about COVID-19.
While a growing number of States are prioritizing the rights of migrants and opting for decongesting detention facilities, others are unfortunately detaining more migrants for longer periods of time or releasing them only to deport them unlawfully. Reasons for this include border closures; suspension of immigration proceedings and returns; public health concerns being used to justify discriminatory blanket detention of migrants without due process; limited capacity to manage alternatives to immigration detention; and the impossibility to conduct cross-border case management during the pandemic.
The impacts of the increased use of immigration detention in the context of COVID-19 are severe – indefinite detention in overcrowded facilities for some, prolonged situations of vulnerability for others, heightened risk of infection for all: detainees, staff, their families and their communities.
Over the past few weeks, a wealth of legal and policy positions and operational guidance has been produced unpacking the parameters established by international law to which States must adhere in their responses to the COVID-19 crisis, including to protect all those deprived of liberty.
The present document aims to build on and complement these positions and guidance, supporting States and other stakeholders in preventing and responding to COVID-19 by prioritizing alternatives to immigration detention.
In particular, it seeks to help States and other stakeholders to operationalize Objective 13 of the Global Compact for Migration, where governments reaffirmed the commitment “to prioritize non-custodial alternatives to detention that are in line with international law, and to take a human rights-based approach to any detention of migrants, using detention as a measure of last resort only.” This involves, among other things, “reduc[ing] the negative and potentially lasting effects of detention on migrants by guaranteeing due process and proportionality, that it is for the shortest period of time, [and] that it safeguards physical and mental integrity”; “provid[ing] access to justice for all migrants who are or may be subject to detention, as well as access to information and the right to regular review of a detention order”; and “protect[ing] and respect[ing] the rights and best interests of the child at all times, regardless of migration status, by ensuring availability and accessibility of a viable range of alternatives to detention in non-custodial contexts, favoring community-based care arrangements that ensure access to education and health care and respect the right to family life and family unity, and by working to end the practice of child detention in the context of international migration.”
Taking this commitment into account and in view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Network on Migration calls on States, working in partnership with relevant stakeholders, to:
- Stop new detentions of migrants for migration – or health-related reasons and introduce a moratorium on the use of immigration detention.
- Scale up and urgently implement non-custodial, community-based alternatives to immigration detention in accordance with international law.
- Release all migrants detained into non-custodial, community-based alternatives, following proper safeguards.
- Improve conditions in places of immigration detention while alternatives are being scaled up and implemented.” (footnotes omitted) (bold added).
Fox News offers its take on the United Nations Network’s guidance.
KJ