Waterman Lauren Z, Pillay Mishka, Katona Cornelius
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
King's College London, UK.
BJPsych Bull. 2022 Oct;46(5):261-266. doi: 10.1192/bjb.2021.110.
Convincing international evidence demonstrates that immigration detention adversely affects mental health. During the COVID-19 outbreak, additional concerns were raised about the safety and appropriateness of immigration detention. Consequently, several hundred migrants were released from UK immigration detention centres, and few new detentions took place. Over 70% fewer migrants were held in detention centres in June 2020 compared with December 2019. This large 'natural experiment' has demonstrated that detaining fewer migrants is possible and it provides an opportunity to review the necessity for large-scale detention for the purpose of immigration control, as well as its impact on health inequalities. Additionally, given that detainee release arrangements had already been considered unsafe prior to the pandemic, clinicians and service providers should take into consideration that many of those released may not be receiving adequate post-release continuity of care.
确凿的国际证据表明，移民拘留对心理健康有不利影响。在新冠疫情爆发期间，人们对移民拘留的安全性和适宜性提出了更多担忧。因此，数百名移民从英国移民拘留中心获释，新的拘留情况也很少发生。与2019年12月相比，2020年6月被关押在拘留中心的移民减少了70%以上。这一大型“自然实验”表明减少移民拘留是可行的，它为审视出于移民管控目的进行大规模拘留的必要性及其对健康不平等的影响提供了契机。此外，鉴于在疫情之前就已认为被拘留者的释放安排不安全，临床医生和服务提供者应考虑到许多获释者可能在获释后无法得到足够的连续性护理。
