Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, the deputy director of the Joutseno Reception Centre reported that no moratorium on new immigration detention orders had been established in the country. The administration said that new detention orders have been issued during the Covid-19 crisis period but that the number of detainees has been lower […]
Human Rights
Trinidad and Tobago: Covid-19 and Detention
Trinidad and Tobago adopted a series of measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including health-related measures, employment benefits, food handouts, and temporary extension of residence permits and certificates. However, most asylum seekers and irregular migrants, mainly from Venezuela, did not benefit from these measures, aside from receiving primary health care (see 9 May Trinidad […]
Venezuela: Covid-19 and Detention
During the four-year period 2016-2019, more than 4.6 million men, women, and children fled or otherwise departed Venezuela because of burgeoning political and economic crises. According to the UNHCR, some 4,000 and 5,000 Venezuelan nationals were leaving the country every day, mainly travelling on foot to neighbouring countries like Colombia, Peru, or Ecuador; thousands of […]
Andorra: Covid-19 and Detention
The tiny country of Andorra, located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, has one of the highest percentages of international migrants in the world, which as of 2017 accounted for more than 50 percent of the country’s population of some 80,000. To date, the GDP has not identified any dedicated immigration removal facilities, and […]
Belgium: Covid-19 and Detention
According to an international organisation official who asked to remain anonymous, but whose identity was verified by the GDP, while no moratorium on new immigration detention orders was established, fewer detention orders have been issued since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Director-General of the Immigration Office (IO) and the Minister for Asylum and […]
Croatia: Covid-19 and Detention
Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, the Croatian Interior Ministry provided detailed information about measures that have been adopted in reception centres hosting asylum seekers. They also provided some limited information about Covid-19 procedures adopted for cases involving police interaction with “illegal migrants and aliens.” However, the ministry gave no specific information concerning […]
Poland: Covid-19 and Detention
Although the number of confirmed cases continues to rise in Poland, authorities have continued to refuse to issue a moratorium on new immigration detention orders (this was previously confirmed by the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights in early July, see 8 July update). According to an international organisation who asked to remain anonymous, but whose […]
Switzerland: Covid-19 and Detention
As the GDP previously reported (see 27 June update), while Swiss authorities did not issue a moratorium on new detention orders during the pandemic, many immigration detainees were released due to the impossibility of conducting returns. This has been confirmed by Amnesty International Switzerland, which informed the GDP that some cantons declared a moratorium on […]
Saudi Arabia: Covid-19 and Detention
Although the UN urged Saudi Arabia to cease deportations in April, Riyadh has continued the practice throughout the pandemic. Since March, 2,870 Ethiopian migrant workers have been deported and Ethiopian officials have reported that as of the end of July, some 927 of these deportees were infected with the virus (although the true number is […]
Yemen: Covid-19 and Detention
Although it has been devastated by ongoing civil war and famine, Yemen has continued to serve as an important migrant and refugee transit country–with many people often enduring torture, rape, and extortion, as well crossfire and airstrikes. In 2019, the IOM estimated that some 138,000 migrants departed from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in […]
