COVID-19 IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION: GLOBAL RESPONSES ORGANISING FOR CHANGE: HOW WE SUPPORTED COVID-19 – STRUCK AND HUNGER STRIKING DETAINEES IN HONG KONG Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region located at the edge of Southern China, with a dense population of 7.5 million. It is home to 530,000 ethnic minorities from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal and other Asian countries1. Given its proximity to China, the city experienced the first wave of COVID-19 outbreak as early as 23 January 2020, and there were over 4,800 confirmed cases by 4 September 2020. discovery. It was mere luck that a full-blown outbreak did not follow. All detainees were asked to conduct a COVID-19 test the next day. People without right of abode in Hong Kong, such as overstayers, ‘illegal workers’ and prisoners with foreign nationalities who had finished their sentences, were detained in CIC, i.e. Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre. Usually around 200-400 were detained at a given time. Some were soon released on recognizance paper and received a minimal monthly subsidy to survive in the city. Some remained in CIC, awaiting deportation back to their country of origin or the result of their nonrefoulement claim (a.k.a. torture claim2) applications or appeals; either way they could be detained for prolonged periods of time, as there was no clearly defined ‘jail term’ in CIC. The authorities justified some unusually long detentions by the detainees’ supposed threat to public order or high chance of abscondment3. Since 29 June 2020, a peak of 28 male CIC detainees from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Zambia and Benin took part in an indefinite hunger strike. They protested against being detained indefinitely, some for over 5 months and even up to 2 years, with no end in sight. 11 strikers entered their 70th day of hunger strike on 7 September. 15 female detainees reportedly conducted a brief hunger strike in solidarity in August as well. Hunger strikes have unfortunately been common among desperate detainees. Prolonged detention, without meaningful activity or work and no contact with sunlight, has been physically and mentally torturous. Many reported that ‘CIC is worse than prison’. In addition, detainees reported appalling hygiene conditions, with frequently blocked toilets and showers, swarms of rats and cockroaches, crowded common areas, shared buckets of drinking water, no place to dry clothes, and poor ventilation. CIC concern group volunteer witnessed staff in full protective gear coming in and out of CIC on 19 August 2020 A second COVID-19-positive case, a 22-year-old Thai male transferred from Pik Uk Prison to CIC for detention, emerged on 5 September5. In particular, this detainee used to work in the Prison’s Laundry Workshop Complex that served the city’s public hospitals. The next morning, the CIC Concern Group discovered that all visits to CIC had been suspended until further notice. A newly admitted detainee was tested positive for COVID-19 on 18 August 2020, another on 5 September. The cases reflected the vulnerability of detainees in times of a pandemic. This article will detail the threats posed by COVID-19 to detainees, and the ground-breaking actions taken by a civil society initiative, CIC Detainees’ Right Concern Group, as well as their impacts. HOW COVID-19 THREATENED CIC DETAINEES The lack of proper outbreak-prevention policies in CIC was exposed when a confirmed case was publicised. On 16 August 2020, a Thai overstayer, alongside 3 other new entrants, was separated from most detainees in an ‘isolation cell’. He was identified as COVID-19 positive on 18 August and taken to the hospital4. However, detainees reported that officers who handled his detention moved freely around CIC before the 1 2 3 4 5 24 The CIC concern group only discovered that all visits to CIC had been suspended until further notice on 6 September 2020, outside the gates of CIC. There were also around 60,000 people categorised as ‘white’. Source: Census and Statistics Department of HKSAR Government. ‘Hong Kong 2016 Population By-census – Thematic Report: Ethnic Minorities’. Retrieved from https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp459.jsp?productCode=B1120100 (3 Sep 2020) Hong Kong did not sign the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, so recognised UN refugees can only await relocation to a third country. See Immigration Department of HKSAR Government (2012, Dec), ‘Policy for detention pending final determination of the claimant’s torture claim’, Retrieved from https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdf/Detention_policy_en.pdf (3 Sep 2020) Immigration Department (2020, August 19), ‘A detainee detained at Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre tested positive for COVID-19 19 August 2020’. Retrieved from https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/press/press-releases/20200819b.html (3 Sep 2020) Immigration Department (2020, September 6), ‘A person transferred from Pik Uk Prison to Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre for detention tests positive for COVID-19’. Retrieved from https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/press/press-releases/20200906.html (11 Sep 2020) International Detention Coalition and Western Sydney University