COVID-19 IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION: GLOBAL RESPONSES UK: CIVIL SOCIETY ENGAGEMENT ON IMMIGRATION DETENTION AMID COVID-19 UK civil society engagement on immigration detention is dynamic and responsive. Several NGOs regularly deliver support and services inside detention centres1, and there are many more involved in advocacy and campaigning for detention reform2. As a result, there was a robust civil society response at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating on behalf of people in detention and making widespread calls for release. Inside detention, effective social distancing was impossible, with restricted facilities and limited hygiene measures putting people at increased risk3. There were also a number of concerns about effective quarantine and prolonged periods of isolation, and the impact this might have on mental health, particularly in the context of the UK having no time limit on immigration detention. The UK Government ‘lockdown’ effectively also shut down all support within immigration detention: legal and social visits were suspended, and people in detention were given limited access to elements of the daily regime. NGOs in contact with people at this time reported higher levels of anxiety, stress and most worryingly, cases of selfharm4. Volunteer visitor groups – part of the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID) national network – began offering telephone or skype support where possible. This ensured that there was at least some level of continued support for people in detention during the crisis. As the crisis progressed and the Government began to facilitate release on an unprecedented scale, some groups also began to offer support for those leaving detention, frantically working to fill a gap as many were released into effective destitution and further risk. Throughout the crisis, information from the Government and detention centre management was sparse. Groups who had previously delivered services inside centres noted a downturn in communication and the absence of any clear information or guidance became an increasing problem, making it difficult for groups to prioritise support and to be able to identify those who may be most vulnerable. As the crisis deepened, despite collective attempts by NGOs to monitor numbers and share information, it became increasingly difficult to ascertain the extent to which the COVID- 19 crisis had reached inside detention. With borders closing and flights suspended across the globe, the necessity and lawfulness of continued detention were also called into question. This was especially pertinent at the peak of the pandemic, as the prospect of imminent removal from the UK for people pending deportation reduced significantly. Human rights charity Detention Action launched two legal challenges in March 2020 requiring the Home Office to identify and release all those with underlying health conditions and to review the lawfulness of detention of all others given the impossibility of removals5. While this legal challenge did not achieve its intended outcome of release for all, it certainly added great pressure to the Government and resulted in mass releases of people from immigration detention. As of May 2020, there were only 368 people in immigration detention, which is the lowest number within the past decade6. Alongside these two major legal challenges, civil society voices from across the spectrum continued to exert pressure on the Government to release people from detention. Central to this was the contribution made by people with lived experience of immigration detention. For example, the ‘These Walls Must Fall’ group in South Yorkshire wrote to the Home Secretary adding much needed lived experience voice to the debate7. They used their first-hand experience of detention to highlight that it is impossible to have spatial distancing or self-isolation in detention due to people having to share cells and rooms, multiple people sharing toilets, shower rooms, dining facilities, exercise yards and other spaces. The advocacy group Freed Voices made similar calls to the Home Secretary in a letter drawing attention to the ‘risk to life’ of continued removals8. Several other NGOs voiced their frustrations and concerns in writing, including a coalition of NGOs and lawyers coordinated by Bail for Immigration Detainees who highlighted the ‘very real risk of an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 in immigration detention’ 9. IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN THE ‘NEW NORMAL’: AVOIDING BUSINESS AS USUAL? Despite numbers reaching an all-time low in April 2020, immigration enforcement resumed as the UK emerged from lockdown. Even by the end of June 2020, numbers were slowly crawling back up again, with 698 people once again in detention across the UK 10. While these numbers are still relatively low, it remains to be seen whether the suspension of some elements of the hostile environment and the facilitation of large-scale releases at the peak of COVID-19 will lead to any long-term changes. Many are worried that the UK is returning to “business as usual”, ignoring the opportunity to consider how this reduction in numbers in detention may be maintained. To this end, 32 organisations have written collectively to the Immigration Minister to emphasise that the present situation provides an opportunity for collaborative thinking around some of the long-standing problems within the immigration detention system, including substantive issues with bail accommodation; flaws in pre-detention screening for vulnerability; ongoing issues with the Adults at Risk policy and other safeguards to identify and protect vulnerable people in detention11. 1 See www.aviddetention.org.uk 2 See www.detentionforum.org.uk 3 See, for example: AVID (April 2020) http://www.aviddetention.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/AVID%20member%20letter_COVID19_FINAL.pdf and INQUEST (March 2020) https://www.inquest.org.uk/covid-19-letter 4 https://twitter.com/RefugeeTales/status/1255470935467012096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1255470935467012096%7C twgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecanary.co%2Ftrending%2F2020%2F04%2F30%2Fdetention-centre-detainees-terrified-as-coronavirusspreads%2F 5 https://detentionaction.org.uk/2020/05/12/update-immigration-detention-covid-19-and-where-we-stand-now/ 6 https://detentionaction.org.uk/2020/05/12/update-immigration-detention-covid-19-and-where-we-stand-now/ 7 https://detention.org.uk/these-walls-must-fall-yorkshire-statement-on-immigration-detention-and-covid-19/ 8 https://detentionforum.org.uk/2020/04/23/open-letter-on-covid-19-to-the-home-secretary-from-freed-voices/ 9 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/coronavirus-call-to-release-uk-immigration-centre-detainees 10 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020/how-many-people-are-detained-or-returned 11 https://hubble-live-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/biduk/redactor2_assets/files/1213/Detention_letter_to_Chris_Philp_MP_FINAL.PDF 56 International Detention Coalition and Western Sydney University