By Annie Hsu
Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic on March 11, the Western world has finally begun to take this outbreak seriously. [1] As Europe became the new epicenter of the pandemic, the Trump administration announced a drastic suspension of “all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days”. [2] The abruptness of this announcement and Trump’s ambiguity immediately instigated an overnight panic. Although the Oval Office and the Department of Homeland Security later clarified that the ban applied to only foreign nationals, Americans nonetheless scrambled to return home in fear of future travel restrictions. [3] The ensuing chaos manifested in spiking fares and price gouging. [4] In the UK, a country to which the travel ban did not apply at the time, the London Heathrow Airport was packed with long winding queues that crammed into one another; many passengers fully geared up with N95 masks, gloves, and even lab goggles; some disappointed passengers discovering the cancellation of their flights; and a prevailing atmosphere of apprehension. [5]
Yet amidst people’s frantic search for ways to get home to family, to guaranteed health care for citizens of countries with universal health care, and to a basic sense of security in this global chaos, the International Organization for Migration and the UN High Commission for Refugees suspended resettlement departures for refugees on March 17. [6] Although this measure is temporary and the UNHCR and the IOM continue to appeal to countries to “ensure that movements can continue for the most critical emergency cases wherever possible”, travel restrictions, border closures, and nation-wide lockdowns present uncertainty about the duration of this measure.
In a recent report, Refugees International points out that “the world’s 70 million displaced people - including refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs and other forced migrants - are among the most vulnerable” as their displacement already leaves them disadvantaged in many ways and as “the impact of the epidemic both exacerbates and is exacerbated by the conditions in which they live”. [7] More people who have been forced from their homes by war, persecution, and other life-threatening issues are now forced to remain in displaced persons’ camps and other temporary settlement locations. In a global pandemic, the preexisting conditions in these places are magnified and expose displaced persons to greater risks of infection. In these high-risk environments for contagious diseases, overcrowding, close confinement, poor ventilation, lack of hygiene and protective equipment as simple as clean water and soap, inadequate access to health care, and a high-stress environment pose serious safety and health hazards. Asylum seekers are unfairly forced into these conditions in which they are unable to follow public health protocols or even practice social distancing. Furthermore, nonprofit organizations have begun to restrict staff and volunteers’ contact with refugees and asylum seekers to prevent the spread of the virus, cutting much-needed support for vulnerable communities.
Around the world, governments have overlooked and even abandoned their humanitarian responsibilities. EU leaders may have disapproved of the Trump administration’s unilateral decision on its travel ban. [8] They nonetheless closed their own external borders to those who urgently need a home. [9] Along with imposing a national lockdown, Greece suspended all of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum’s administrative services until at least April 13. Given the appallingly overcrowded conditions in the Reception and Identification Centres where asylum seekers are forced to live, the Greek government has not taken any significant measures to prepare for a potential COVID-19 outbreak within these facilities and has prohibited NGOs from entering them. [10]
In the U.S., the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy has already confined thousands of asylum seekers in densely populated areas in Mexico with poor infrastructure and hygiene to await their hearings. Its March 20 border and port closures left no exceptions for asylum seekers or unaccompanied minors and have enabled forced repatriation of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers without due process. [11]
As a country that prides itself in its humanitarianism and embrace of immigration, Canada decided to shut its borders to asylum seekers in a surprising turn of events. On March 20, just a week after expressing dismay at Trump’s travel ban [12] and only three days after promising to keep the U.S.-Canada border open to asylum seekers [13], Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that refugee and asylum claimants will be barred from entry along the entire Canada-U.S. border as part of an agreement with the U.S. to ban “non-essential” travels. Refugee and asylum rights advocacy groups across Canada condemned the Canadian government’s legal culpability in violating its non-refoulement obligation. [14] By returning asylum seekers to the U.S. where they are likely to be deported or held in immigration detention centers, Canada becomes complicit in these human rights violations.
In immigration detention centers in Laval, Quebec, detainees sent a handwritten petition to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) asking to be released on parole [15] and 30 detainees began a hunger strike [16]. According to the CBSA, the total number of detainees held in all of Canada’s immigration detention centers decreased to 64 individuals as of April 1. [17] Nevertheless, the government has yet to provide information about protective measures for those who are still held in immigration detention.
Over the past few weeks, international travellers’ worst fears were confirmed: more and more Western states imposed travel restrictions and lockdowns that only became more stringent to combat COVID-19. When commercial options became unavailable to citizens abroad, states such as Canada worked with airlines to repatriate more than a million citizens and permanent residents from all around the world in what Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs described as “the largest repatriation effort in Canada’s history in peacetime”. [18] As borders shut down and most commercial flights were cancelled, those who are stranded abroad have continued to call on their home countries for help. [19] And their governments at least respond to their pleads in the media and on social media, providing reassurances and directing them to emergency assistance and consular services. Yet, refugees and asylum seekers have been mostly left out of the global conversation and emergency response efforts. So far, only Portugal has granted all migrants and asylum seekers temporary full citizenship rights with full access to healthcare. Few countries appear to understand that an inclusive response to COVID-19, one that protects people in precarious situations, is necessary not just for humanitarian concerns, but also for the overall effectiveness in protecting international public health.
Annie Hsu is a 2019-2020 Co-Deputy Editor of the Sigma Iota Rho Online Journal. She is currently studying International Relations and History at the University of Pennsylvania.
Works Cited:
[1] https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020
[2] https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020
[3] https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/coronavirus-europe-travel-ban-us-transit-through-uk/index.html
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/american-caps-europe-us-fares-as-demand-spikes-amid-trump-travel-restrictions.html
[5] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8111769/Huge-queues-people-Heathrow-try-Donald-Trump-considers-banning-UK.html
[6] https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2020/3/5e7103034/iom-unhcr-announce-temporary-suspension-resettlement-travel-refugees.html
[7] https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2020/3/29/covid-19-and-the-displaced-addressing-the-threat-of-the-novel-coronavirus-in-humanitarian-emergencies
[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/trump-bans-travel-from-europe-here-what-you-need-to-know.html
[9] https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/europe/europe-shuts-its-borders-to-stop-coronavirus-intl/index.html
[10] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/31/greece-nearly-2000-new-arrivals-detained-overcrowded-mainland-camps
[11] https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/02/us-covid-19-policies-risk-asylum-seekers-lives
[12] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/freeland-trump-travel-coronavirus-1.5494900
[13] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-will-not-bar-irregular-asylum-seekers-over-covid-19-concerns/
[14] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canada-could-face-legal-trouble-over-refugee-deportations-advocates-2/
[15] https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/coronavirus-anxiety-levels-high-inside-lavals-immigration-holding-centre/
[16] https://globalnews.ca/news/6746367/coronavirus-immigrants-hunger-strike-laval/
[17] https://globalnews.ca/news/6774564/coronavirus-immigration-detainees/
[18] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/three-flight-peru-champagne-1.5506506
[19] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/covid-19-pandemic-stranded-canadians-emergency-loans-1.5518102
Image Source: Clothing hangs to dry at a makeshift migrant camp for asylum seekers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, Mexico, on March 1, 2020. © 2020 Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg/Getty Images (found in Human Rights Watch article)
