6 Introduction Administrative detention refers to the detention Despite a large body of evidence on the harmful- of asylum seekers or undocumented migrants to ness of immigration detention, EU member states carry out administrative procedures. Across Europe, are increasingly resorting to detention in order to children, families, men and women, often with control and deter migration, as well as for criminal pre-existing situations of vulnerability or traumas, are law-related purposes.5 Detention was also main- detained solely because of their migratory status. tained during the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe in 2020 and 2021, even though travel restrictions and In theory, immigration detention has no punitive border closures due to the pandemic significantly function. Nevertheless, it is perceived as a punish- reduced the chances of carrying out returns during ment by people who are subjected to it. Detention these years. The only exception was Spain, where is a harmful and disproportionate practice that has civil society advocacy, the ombudsman and the serious impacts on migrants’ rights and can expose courts prompted the government to close detention them to torture and inhuman treatment, physical and centres.6 However, far from reflecting a new, human mental suffering, and separation from their families.3 rights-based approach to the issue, the Spanish In 2022, a report by the WHO Regional Office for decision was conditional and lasted for four months.7 Europe found that immigration detention can have As soon as deportations resumed at the end of a severe impact on migrants’ health, especially 2020, detention centres were quickly reopened. mental health, and called on EU member states to Moreover, even during the pandemic, detention of use alternatives to detention.4 people arriving by sea never stopped, in line with 2 2 See Bosworth M., 2019, Immigration Detention, Punishment and the Transformation of Justice, in Social and Legal Studies; Fernández Bessa C., 2021, Los centros 3 For instance, Esposito F., Ornelas J., Briozzo E., Arcidiacono C., 2019, Ecology of sites of confinement: everyday life in a detention center for illegalisez non-citizens, de internamiento de extranjeros (CIE): Una introducción desde las Ciencias Penales. “American Journal of Community Psychology”; von Werthern M., Robjant K., Chui Z., Schon R., Ottisova L., Mason C., Katona C., 2018, The impact of immigration detention on mental health: a systematic review, “BCM Psychiatry”; BVMN, 2023. 4 WHO, 2022, Addressing the health challenges in immigration detention, and alternatives to detention: a country implementation guide. 5 See PICUM, Between administrative and criminal law: an overview of criminalisation of migration across the EU, forthcoming. 6 A few countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK) released most of the people detained during the first months of the 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic, but the centres were not definitively shut down. See PICUM, 2020, Non-exhaustive overview of European government measures impacting undocumented migrants taken in the context of COVID-19. 7 Interview with Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, Spain, on 20 December 2022, according to whom the pandemic eventually led to further restrictions of the rights of migrants in detention.