Last week the Home Office released new statistics ‘relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system.’ They are worth a look to see what has been happening since the outbreak of the pandemic in the UK.
You’ll see that the number of people in the detention estate has fallen since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of restrictions in the UK. At the start of May 2020, there were 313 people detained in the detention estate. This compares to 1,278 at the end of December 2019 and 555 at the end of March 2020. And since the UK lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020 (up to the 30 April 2020), 295 people have entered detention.
