We are over a month into 2021 and two things we all would have preferred to leave behind in the previous year are still with us: Covid-19 and the Hostile Environment. In the 40 days of this year we have seen several worrying displays of how the former interacts with the latter.

Covid-19 Outbreak in Brook House Immigration Removal Centre

As we are all well aware, one of the best ways to spread Covid-19 is to be in a confined, poorly-ventilated space with lots of other people. As a result of this one of the first focuses at the onset of the outbreak was prisons. The Ministry of Justice reported they had identified 4,000 prisoners for early release to limit spread in April last year.

Unfortunately the same was not applied to people held in Immigration Detention.

Immigration Removal Centre’s (IRCs) hold irregular migrants, who no longer hold any leave to remain in the UK, who the Home Office have identified as being able to be removed to their country of origin. Generally people are only meant to be held in these for short periods of time, whilst removal is facilitated. This is not always the case though: there have been instances of people spending months or even years in these facilities.

Despite warnings from NGOs, trade unions and medical experts of the risks of continuing to fill IRCs, as well as a questioning of the appropriateness of hurriedly removing migrants during a global pandemic, the Home Office made no effort to close the IRCs until, of course, they were forced to.

Serco-run Brook House IRC saw three wings placed into lockdown in December of last year. On 8th January 2021 it was announced Brook House would be forced to close owing to the Covid-19 outbreak. Detainees at the centre were reportedly moved to another IRC.

This would not be the only incident of a cramped inappropriate conditions leading to an entirely avoidable disaster.

Disused Army barracks “converted” into asylum accommodation

Covid-19 saw the asylum system grind to a halt, cases were not decided, appeals were not heard and this had a knock-on effect on an already stretched and failing housing system.

The asylum accommodation system is reliant on successful, and failed, claimants leaving the asylum support system to make space for new arrivals; Covid-19 caused a significant bottleneck.

In response to this, new arrivals started to be housed in hotels, empty owing to limits placed on both domestic and international travel. This attracted the adverse attention of far-right hate groups who protested against these measures. In response to this, a leaked document shows, the Home Office contracted out, via privatised companies, two disused, rundown, isolated military barracks to house asylum seekers.

These two facilities, in Napier, Kent and Penally, Pembrokeshire, have been criticised for inadequate conditions and overcrowding. The isolated location of both has seen the 650 men held at both barracks struggle to obtain the vital legal representation required for an asylum claim. The camps have seen protests, journalists arrested for photographing these protests, a major fire and, as with the IRCs, a major Covid-19 outbreak.

Many of the people housed at these inadequate facilities have fled war, persecution or torture. Freedom from Torture are petitioning the government to close the barracks.

Concern Migrant population are too afraid to get vaccine

A report published by JCWI discovered 43% of all migrants, 56% of refugees, and 58% of migrants with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) who responded to the survey are scared of accessing health care owing to fears related to data sharing with the Home Office.

This will have a drastic effect on vaccine uptake and could mean many people who wish to have the vaccine are simply too scared to get one for non-medical reasons. Everyone, everyone, is entitled to primary care in the UK, irrelevant of immigration status. This includes access to GPs and access to Covid-19 vaccines. So why is there such a concern?

Because of the Hostile Environment.

Certain migrants are not entitled to secondary care (i.e. routine surgery) in the UK, unless it is urgent and life-saving. The Hostile Environment has made medical professionals share data with the Home Office, leading to a twofold effect of scaring migrants away from services they were entitled to and confusing healthcare providers, sometimes leading them to turn people away from services they were entitled to.

This has always had a drastic effect on public health leading to treatment being delayed until it is severe or simply too late. During a global pandemic the effects are stark, we are placing all peoples’ lives at risk by continuing this policy.

This blog is a brief snapshot of the consequences of the Home Office’s continuation of Hostile Environment policies. This blog has covered a period of a month and a half of these policies. It is nearly nine years since Theresa May’s infamous Hostile Environment speech, the policy has done enough damage; it is time for it to end. The longer it continues, the more blatant the inequalities it exposes become.