Coronavirus and Immigration Detention in Europe: The Short Summer of Abolitionism?

José A. Brandariz,Cristina Fernández-Bessa

doi:10.3390/socsci10060226

Abstract

In managing the coronavirus pandemic, national authorities worldwide have implemented significant re-bordering measures. This has even affected regions that had dismantled bordering practices decades ago, e.g., EU areas that lifted internal borders in 1993. In some national cases, these new arrangements had unexpected consequences in the field of immigration enforcement. A number of European jurisdictions released significant percentages of their immigration detention populations in spring 2020. The Spanish administration even decreed a moratorium on immigration detention and closed down all detention facilities from mid-spring to late summer 2020. The paper scrutinises these unprecedented changes by examining the variety of migration enforcement agendas adopted by European countries and the specific forces contributing to the prominent detention decline witnessed in the first months of the pandemic. Drawing on the Spanish case, the paper reflects on the potential impact of this promising precedent on the gradual consolidation of social and racial justice-based migration policies.

Highlights

Sciences 10: 226. https://doi.org/The coronavirus pandemic, which started in early 2020, has deeply shaken the foundations of our social life, turning upside down every dimension of our world
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a seismic impact on human mobility, since international—and, in many cases, even local—travel was immediately singled out as a critical risk factor of coronavirus infection
This paper explores the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on immigration detention by essentially spotlighting these exceptional release practices

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic, which started in early 2020, has deeply shaken the foundations of our social life, turning upside down every dimension of our world. The pandemic has called into question the role and goals and migration detention policies, in a period in which deportation efforts have been significantly eroded by the coronavirus turmoil In this scenario, public health concerns have taken the lead over other public policy priorities, resulting in significant contingents of immigration detainees being released in many jurisdictions. The paper explores the forces and conditions contributing to the detention population decline witnessed in many European jurisdictions in mid-2020, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of those unprecedented policies for a detention abolition agenda Drawing on this reflection, the paper outlines some conclusions on what can be learned from an exceptional time that we metaphorically call the “brief summer of abolitionism” in the field of immigration detention

Public Health Policies and the Immigration Detention Decline

Coronavirus and the Temporary Moratorium on Immigration Detention

Findings

Concluding Remarks