European Parliament calls for prioritising alternatives to detention In mid-December, the European Parliament approved the Resolution on the implementation of the Return Directive, which moves away from the exclusive focus on the rates of returns, and stresses that “sustainable returns and successful reintegration are important indicators in the assessment of the effectiveness of returns”. The Resolution further includes important references to the need to prioritise alternatives to detention and provide individual case management and assistance, to prioritise and facilitate voluntary returns, and stresses that children should never be detained. Greece commits to stop detention of unaccompanied minors On 18 November 2020, the Migration and Asylum Minister of Greece, Notis Mitarakis, committed to ending the practice of detaining unaccompanied migrant children in jail cells. He also reported that, as of that date, no unaccompanied migrant children remained in police custody. The practice had been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights, which considered it a violation of the right to liberty and security. New research on Covid-19 contingency plans in detention centres A recent survey by the European Migration Network on how countries are dealing with Covid-19 in immigration detention shows that detainees who test positive are either transferred to a medical facility (Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy) or treated in the detention unit unless their condition deteriorates and a transfer is deemed necessary by the centre’s doctor (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Sweden, Spain). Distribution of protective gear to detainees was only reported in Poland and Slovakia. Migreurop exposes illegal detention in several EU member states A new report by Migreurop on immigration detention in Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain finds that, in 2019, administrative detention was increasingly happening outside or at the margins of existing legal frameworks, and in informal settings, such as police stations and border zones. The EU Pact on Asylum and Migration will likely generalise this practice and turn it into law. The report includes information about detention conditions, including deficiencies in the provision of accommodation, and medical, interpretation and administration services. Italy: new report shows detention conditions in “quarantine boats” Several Italian NGOs have published an analysis of the use of boats to quarantine migrants after search and rescue operations, on which nearly 10,000 people have been detained since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, including families and children. The analysis points to lack of adequate health services available on the boats, the impossibility to maintain social distancing, the high costs of the procedures (which are more expensive than similar structures on land) and issues regarding the legality of the measure. In October, a 15-year old boy died after spending ten days on a quarantine boat on which there was only one doctor available for 600 people.