While calls to protect prison populations have steadily grown during the Covid-19 pandemic, another detainee population has seemingly been overlooked in many parts of the world: immigration detainees. In country after country and across all regions of the world, as authorities worked to shrink their prison populations, often by targeting low-level offenders and those nearing the ends of their sentences, they stubbornly resisted taking concerted action to empty detention centres.
In an article for Open Democracy, the GDP takes a look at the way in which the pandemic has impacted migrants and asylum seekers behind bars. “COVID-19 has helped reveal an uncomfortable fact about immigration detention which, although long recognized by activists and experts, should now be impressed upon the public at large: That detainees in immigration custody often do not enjoy the same rights as people who are prosecuted for committing crimes.”
