Solidarity first. Really?

How COVID-19 affects detention and deportation regimes across Europe

This text was written by the „Transnational Collective against Deportations“. The collective consists of People from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. You can contact us via mail: tra@immerda.ch

The corona pandemic is plunging countries around the globe into an economic crisis and a crisis of public health – the virus is affecting the whole world. Despite its global scale, states and their governments are seeking national responses. In Europe, the pandemic has pushed on the one hand solidarity and prioritization of public health, but on the other hand the restrictions on social life, freedom of movements and public liberties. In many countries the right to gather and to protest has been infringed by these new policies and we can observe authoritarian tendencies in the implementation of the measures taken. Often it is pointed out that the corona pandemic affects all of us. However, the corona crisis as well as the consequences of the reactions towards it are socially differentiated and thereby often catalyze pre-existing discriminations and exclusions. This pandemic not only sheds light on the degrading conditions in prisons and detention centers even in normal times, but also makes evident the ugliest face of EU states’ containment, detention and expulsion policies. States have made a choice over which bodies are worth protection and healing and which are excluded from prevention, let alone care.

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