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557Border
Closures: A Pandemic of Symbolic Acts in the Time of COVID-19
With global infectious disease outbreaks comes pressure on
national governments to close their borders to citizens or resi-
dents of affected countries. Too many governments give way to this
pressure. Border closures against high-risk regions, implemented
by dozens of countries within the first two months of the COVID-
19 outbreak (see Figure F4.1), isolate vulnerable communities, dev-
astate fragile economies, and disincentivize affected governments
from reporting new cases of disease. Targeted border closures also
violate the International Health Regulations (IHR)—the legally bind-
ing instrument that governs how 196 countries respond to pandemics
like COVID-19—and that in turn undermines our global public health
system and the rules-based world order on which we depend.1
This chapter takes a critical look at national border closures in
the time of COVID-19. After explaining why targeted border closures
do not work and how they violate international law, we examine the
more complicated case of total border closures and present the quar-
antining of incoming travellers as a reasonably available less restric-
tive alternative that is likely to be equally effective. We end by asking
why nearly every government has implemented some form of border
closure, if most are not supported by science or law. We conclude that
border closures represent an irresistible opportunity for political lead-
ers to show they are doing something and to redirect blame outside
their jurisdiction. Such political theatre of symbolic acts means that
citizens must contest and challenge border closures as they would
any other questionable government action. Citizens must not unduly
defer to scientists or lawyers on COVID-19 border closures because
these are primarily political—not scientific or legal—decisions.
Targeted Border Closures Are Ineffective
In theory, targeted border closures are intended to prevent all incom-
ing travel by people who might have been exposed to a pathogen,
who might be carrying it, and who might transmit that pathogen to
others. If people from affected areas cannot leave their country, then
1. Roojin Habibi et al, “Do Not Violate the International Health Regulations During
the COVID-19 Outbreak” (2020) 395:10225 The Lancet 664 [Habibi]; Steven J
Hoffman & Roojin Habibi, “Opinion: Canada Should Not Join Other Countries
in Instituting Travel Restrictions – Or in Breaking International Law”, The GlobeÂ
and Mail (11 March 2020), online: <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/
article-canada-should-not-join-other-countries-in-instituting-travel/>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International