Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, the Permanent Observatory for Immigration, part of the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, and acting as European Migration Network (EMN) contact, reported that no moratorium on new immigration detention orders was established, but that immigration detention is no longer justifiable in law as there are no reasonable prospects of removal of persons. For this reason, all Spain’s immigration detention centres (Centros de internamiento de extranjeros) have been emptied (see 15 May Spain update on this platform).
EMN Spain said that when persons were released from immigration detention, authorities verified if the detainee had access to support, either from their families or NGOs. People who are detained in police facilities for entering the territory irregularly and subsequently released are given specific quarantine orders and are tested for Covid-19. EMN Spain also said that all migrants arriving irregularly into the country are tested for Covid-19 and placed in quarantine.
- EMN Spain (Permanent Observatory for Immigration, Ministry of Labour and Immigration), Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, July 2020.
- Global Detention Project, Immigration Detention in Spain, May 2020, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/spain
- Permanent Observatory for Immigration Logo, (OPI, “Caldendario de Difusion Estadistica,” 2019, http://extranjeros.mitramiss.gob.es/es/Estadisticas/Calendario_2019.pdf)
