Detention Action are launching a fresh legal challenge against the Home Office as hundreds remain in immigration detention centres despite the increased risks of contracting Covid-19 within detention centres, and the Home Office’s inability to remove individuals to countries outside of Europe.
This follows a challenge brought by Detention Action in March 2020 raising concerns about the lawfulness of continued detention whilst conditions within the centres put individuals at high risk of contracting Covid-19 and global travel restrictions prevented deportations, following which hundreds of detainees were released.
The new legal challenge argues that the Home Office’s failure to disclose its Covid-19 detention policies has left many detainees unable to understand or challenge the basis on which they are being held, and that its irrational and discriminatory approach has led to inconsistencies in how new and existing detention cases are handled.
Chris Buttler and Ayesha Christie are instructed by Duncan Lewis on behalf of Detention Action.