Supply chain justice: the logistics of British border control

Thu 20 February 2025

Institute of Criminology

In this talk, Mary Bosworth will introduce her new book, the first study of immigration detainee escorting in the UK. This wholly outsourced form of border control includes sites of short-term immigration detention at the border and within, a fleet of custodial vans, and scheduled and charter deportation flights. Drawing on a four-year mixed-method project, which spanned the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary will discuss how this system is arranged and run like a supply chain. While the outcome may feel punitive for those subject to it, unlike the more familiar sites of long-term immigration detention, this system is not obviously penal it in its design or execution. And yet staff are trained in and entitled to use force and to restrict people’s liberty. Exploring the tensions between these elements Mary will turn to studies of infrastructure and logistics, to consider how they might further our understanding and critique of this system and its punitive effects.

Mary Bosworth is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford where she established and is co-director of the international research network and website, Border Criminologies. Mary works on immigration detention and deportation. Many years ago she did her PhD at Cambridge with Alison Liebling.

Please note seminars and events are recorded.

Cost: Free