A multi-stakeholder perspective on infection control in reception centers for asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

The project aims to investigate which strategies reception centers for asylum seekers in Germany employ to prevent outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 infections in these often crowded facilities, which measures they took to contain outbreaks once infections occurred and how measures were and are perceived by both residents of these centers as well as NGOs involved. While reception centers are problematic institutions from a public health and human rights perspective, changes in migration laws all over Europe increased their number in the last years. Consequently, the question of how such institutions can foster their resilience towards epidemics and other health hazards is of increasing concern. Therefore, the project aims to map the most common approaches to infection control and to use these to develop best practice recommendations that will enable reception centers and similar institutions in Germany and other countries to better cope with the current pandemic and future epidemics.