COVID-19 IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION: GLOBAL RESPONSES
CONTENTS
I REFUSE – A POEM BY ANTHONY MIRANDA
3
FOREWORD FROM INTERNATIONAL DETENTION
COALITION (IDC)
4
FOREWORD FROM HUMANITARIAN AND
DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH INITIATIVE (HADRI)
5
ABOUT IDC
6
ABOUT HADRI
6
AUSTRALIA
Detention at all costs: COVID-19 and Immigration
Detention in Australia
10
BANGLADESH AND MYANMAR
State Responses to the Refugee Situation
during COVID-19: Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh
12
CANADA
The Cordon Sanitaire and the Shifting Threats
of the COVID-19 Pandemich
14
ETHIOPIA
COVID-19, In Between Policy Change –
The Uncertain Situation of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia
16
EUROPE
Left in limbo? Europe’s stateless populations
in a global pandemic
HONG KONG
COVID-19 and Immigration Detention in Hong Kong
Organising for Change: How We Supported COVID-19 –
Struck and Hunger Striking Detainees in Hong Kong
19
21
24
INDIA
Impact of COVID-19 on Immigration Detention
27
INDONESIA
Questioning alternatives to Detention in time of Pandemic
29
JAPAN
Indefinite Immigration Detention and the
COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan
LIBYA
COVID-19 in Libya may increase the risk
of detention for migrants and refugees
8
31
MALAYSIA
COVID-19 In Malaysia: Pushing Migrant
Workers Further at the Margin
36
MEXICO
Between oblivion and criminal neglect:
Migrants and refugees during the
COVID-19 health emergency in Mexico
38
POLAND
The impact of pandemic on the risk
of detention for stateless persons in Poland
40
SAUDI ARABIA
Immigration Detention in Saudi Arabia during
COVID-19: A Case-Study on the treatment
of Ethiopian Migrants
42
SINGAPORE
Singapore’s mixed response to COVID-19:
migrant workers sidelined
45
SOUTH AFRICA
COVID-19 and Immigration Detention:
A South African Perspective
47
SPAIN
Alternatives to immigration detention are the only way out
49
THAILAND
Thailand’s response to COVID-19, Urban Refugees
and Asylum Seekers, and Immigration Detention
51
TUNISIA
COVID-19 and the multi-actor emergency response
in Tunisia: an effective step for a more aware and
inclusive debate on migration?
54
UNITED KINGDOM
Civil Society Engagement on Immigration
Detention amid COVID-19
56
UNITED STATES
How Private Prisons are exacerbating COVID-19
in the United States and Beyond
58
AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS
60
33
International Detention Coalition and Western Sydney University