Blurred lines: Detaining asylum seekers in Britain and France

Abstract

In this article, we explore the use of immigration detention for asylum seekers in Britain and France who are awaiting removal to other European Union (EU) member states for processing under the terms of the Dublin Convention. As we will show, the emphasis on risk assessment as the grounds for detaining these people recasts humanitarian protections as security matters, effectively folding asylum seekers into a broader criminalisation of migration. A punitive response to those seeking refuge, this practice blurs the line between detention and asylum, and thereby hollows out key international human rights protections that have been central to the European project.

Seeking asylum in Bristol: insights into psychological needs and resilience

“…Moreover, asylum seekers are typically allocated to accommodation in deprived districts and may be moved frequently (Bakker et al, 2016). They risk being arrested and detained at any time (Bosworth and Vannier, 2020), which pushes some individuals into hiding (Bloch, 2014).…”

Immigration detention and juxtaposed border controls on the French north coast

“…For those fleeing conflict and persecution in their homeland, who, over various periods since the war in the Balkans in the 1990s, have gathered in Calais hoping to find a way across the border to join friends and relatives in the UK, these banal sites of administrative custody embody the custodial potential and punitive nature inherent within the Common European Asylum Framework (Basilien-Gainche, 2015; Costello and Mouzourakis, 2016). In their institutional reliance on the PAF, both to deliver and to remove their occupants, these places of administrative custody offer further evidence of the hollowing out of humanitarian protections and the erosion of legal distinctions between the asylum and detention systems (Bosworth and Vannier, 2020) as well as of the increasing interconnections between immigration control and criminal justice (Van der Woude and Van der Leun, 2017).…”

“…Some will be taken by the PAF to the nearby French detention centre – the Coquelles Centre de Rétention Administrative – whereas others are released onto the streets of Calais. Still others, found in (criminal) violation of a French deportation order, may be taken to a nearby gaol (Bosworth and Vannier, 2016, 2020).…”

“… 2. For more on how the Dublin Convention concerning the management of asylum seekers impacts immigration detention, please see Basilien-Gainche (2015); Bosworth and Vannier (2020); and Costello and Mouzourakis (2016). Space constraints prevent further discussion of this legal arrangement here. …”

“… 16. For a comparative account of the implications of the Dublin Convention for asylum seekers in the UK and France, see Bosworth and Vannier, 2020). …”