Facing pressure from rights groups and civil society, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released a small number of immigration detainees. However, as the United States has the largest Immigration detention system in the world, which can reach some 40,000 detainees on any given day, the challenges the country confronts are enormous. Those released to […]
Detention Data
Pakistan: Covid-19 and detention
There are reports indicating that Pakistani authorities have taken some steps to mitigate the impact of the virus on the country’s prison population, which includes non-citizen detainees imprisoned under the 1946 Foreigners Act. The government has suspended visits to penitentiaries and court hearings. On 16 March, the Sindh provincial government began screening inmates and prison […]
Italy: Covid-19 and Detention
The Italian government declared its ports “unsafe” due to coronavirus, and will not authorise the landing of migrant rescue boats until after the end of the emergency. […]
Iran: Covid-19 and Detention
According to UNHCR, “There are close to one million refugees in Iran, mostly from Afghanistan and also Iraq. From the onset of the pandemic, the Government of Iran has made every effort to ensure that all refugees have access to the same health services as Iranians, so that they are fully included in the national […]
Lebanon: Covid-19 and Detention
The GDP has been unable to find any reports indicating whether measures have been taken to safeguard migrants and asylum seekers in detention in Lebanon, in particular at the country’s main immigration detention centre in Beirut. Many migrants and refugees can also end up in prisons for extended periods of time. But there are growing […]
Mexico: Covid-19 and detention
With one of the largest immigration detention systems in the world, Mexico faces an enormous task in trying to protect the tens of thousands of people locked up in its “estaciones migratorias” from contracting Covid-19. Even as the country’s leadership downplayed the risks of the pandemic, some key actors in the country began expressing alarm […]
France: Covid-19 and Detention
In mid-March the “Observatoire de l’enfermement des étrangers” (OEE) issued a statement calling for the immediate release of immigration detainees as legally, the state can only hold them for the time necessary to effectuate their deportation. The observatory argued that this was now impossible due to flights being grounded and would run contrary to the […]
Jordan: Covid-19 and Detention
Although the GDP has not been able to find reports of authorities taking steps to protect persons in immigration detention, various reports have highlighted that in Zaatari and Azraq refugee camps – which some observers have likened to immigration detention facilities (although the GDP does not classify them as such) – temperature screening has been […]
Uganda: Covid-19 and Detention
Despite the country’s open-door policy towards refugees and asylum seekers, on 25 March authorities announced measures to suspend the reception of new refugees and asylum seekers for thirty days. Transit and reception centres were ordered to close immediately, while flights in and out of the country have been suspended and borders sealed. Refugees who are […]
Ukraine: Covid-19 and Detention
While calls have been circulated urging authorities to take precautionary steps to protect prisoners, the GDP is not aware of such calls being made with regards to immigration detainees. On 24 March, 100 Ukrainian and European NGOs issued a statement urging Russian authorities to take necessary steps to protect prisoners confined in the Donbas and […]
