Responding to the Global Detention Project’s (GDP) Covid-19 survey, the Danish Department of Prisons and Probations said that there is one main special detention centre for immigration detainees, which it administers (according to GDP data, while Denmark has one long-standing dedicated facility, the Ellebaek Detention Centre, it has recently used other facilities for detaining migrants and/or asylum seekers, including Aabenraa Prison and Nykøbing Falster Arrest). The department said that because the police and the courts decide whether a non-citizen should be detained, it was unable to respond to most of the questions on the GDP survey. The department added that new immigration and asylum policies are the responsibility of the Ministry of Immigration. The department also reported that the testing of detainees in the special detention centre is supposed to be carried out on the initiative of medical staff. After the onset of the pandemic, all visits that were not considered absolutely necessary were suspended and internal measures were taken, including such as that detainees could only socialise with others from their own wing.
- Department of Prisons and Probations, Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, 17 August 2020, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe16r5vVHGhg8AmhOBHG-LzW_wTKk_nlPNt3RiVfjZzapnBsQ/viewform
- Global Detention Project, Immigration Detention in Denmark, May 2018, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/denmark
- Department of Prisons and Probations – Corrections, (Kriminalforsorgen, Department of Prisons and Probation, accessed on 25 August 2020, https://www.europris.org/agency/department-of-prisons-and-probation-dk__trashed/)
