Immigration detention and juxtaposed border controls on the French north coast

Abstract

In this article, I build on criminological accounts of immigration detention by examining British short-term holding facilities located on French territory in the ports of Calais and Dunkerque and the policies and treaties that govern them. For a number of reasons, including barriers to research access, their legal complexity, and their modest size and nature, these institutions have received little empirical or theoretical scrutiny. Yet, as I shall demonstrate through an analysis of a range of published material from Parliamentary debates, government and non-governmental agencies, the media and the Internet, as well as observations of the sites themselves and figures about them, these banal, bureaucratic sites of temporary custody play an important role in upholding the more familiar border spectacle of the region.

The Politics of Exhaustion and the Externalization of British Border Control. An Articulation of a Strategy Designed to Deter, Control and Exclude

“…However, organisations operating on the ground report that the measures are largely inadequate, and individuals continue to return to the informal settlements after having stayed in state accommodation for a couple of nights. Bosworth, 2016aBosworth, , 2016bBosworth, , 2020Welander, 2016a, 2016b;Welander 2019aWelander , 2020Timberlake, 2020 for accounts which challenge the UK's border policies in northern France.…”

“…Rights groups have argued that this policy is in breach of the UK’s international legal obligations by “circumventing the right to asylum and as a result also the protection against non‐refoulement ” (Refugee Rights Europe, 2020; see also Amnesty International, 2017). The externalization of the UK border to France, executed through the juxtaposed arrangements, has seen the deployment of hundreds of UK Border Force guards to French territory, the opening of UK detention facilities (Short Term Holding Facilities) in Coquelles in northern France (Bosworth, 2020), and the application of UK criminal law powers beyond its territory. These arrangements mean that safe and legal routes to seek asylum in Britain are next to non‐existent 7 and have led to “the emergence of a ‘border zone’ stretching from Calais and Grande‐Synthe in northern France to the capitals of Brussels and Paris if not further afield” (Welander, 2020: 33).…”

“…1. 1. See in particular Millner, 2011; Rygiel, 2011; Davies and Isakjee, 2015; Reinisch, 2015; Ansems de Vries and Welander, 2016a, 2016b; Bosworth, 2016a, 2016b, 2020; King, 2016; Ansaloni, 2017; Davies et al, 2017; Sandri, 2018; Agier, 2019; Hicks and Mallet, 2019; King, 2019; Welander, 2020. …”

“…2. 2. See for example Pickering and Lambert, 2002; Walters, 2004; Collyer, 2007; Spijkboer, 2007; Hyndman and Mountz, 2008; Mountz, 2011; Garelli and Tazzioli, 2016; Tazzioli, 2017, 2019a, 2019b; De Genova, 2017b; Davies et al, 2017; Hess and Kasparek, 2017; Barbero and Donadio, 2019; Dastyari and Hirsch, 2019; Loughnan, 2019b; Missbach and Phillips, 2020; Bosworth, 2020. …”

“…30. 30. See e.g. Bosworth, 2016a, 2016b, 2020; Ansems de Vries and Welander, 2016a, 2016b; Welander 2019a, 2020; Timberlake, 2020 for accounts which challenge the UK’s border policies in northern France. …”