As part of their proposed plan regarding an intensified focus on return policies and practices, the current Swedish government has suggested a number of measures related to Swedish detention centers. These measures include, for example, increasing the capacity of detention centers and increasing security measures. Despite these proposals, we find that research on detention centers in a Swedish context is an underdeveloped field.
Building upon Vanessa Lynn Barker’s previous research on detention centers, this Policy Brief describes and explains the use of immigration detention as outlined in the Tidö agreement. It aims to explain the causes and consequences of a high reliance on detention centers in Sweden, while placing the specific proposals in the Tidö agreement in a historical and comparative perspective.
Vanessa Lynn Barker is a Professor in Sociology at Stockholm University, Editor in Chief of Punishment & Society, Visiting Professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo, and Advisor to Border Criminologies at the University of Oxford.
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