5,019
Immigration detainees
2019
145
Detained children
2017
25,500,000
Population
2020
With one of the largest migration detention systems, Turkey has long served as Europe's reluctant refugee gatekeeper ... and sometimes strong-armed enforcer, as Afghan refugees have recently experienced.
Not Available
Immigration detainees
2020
Not Available
Detained children
2020
31,334
New asylum applications
2020
84,300,000
Population
2020
Morocco has long prided itself for defending the rights of non-nationals. However, this reputation has repeatedly been tarnished as criticism has grown over its treatment of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants. In particular, increasing pressure from Europe to block the movement of migrants and asylum seekers is encouraging the use of enforcement tactics that violate migrants’ fundamental human rights.
Full Country ProfileNot Available
Immigration detainees
2020
Not Available
Detained asylum seekers
2020
No Data
Detained children
36,900,000
Population
2020
South Africa has increasingly viewed cross border movements through the lens of national security and criminality. According to observers, the country's Border Management Act, adopted in 2020, reflects this embrace of a securitisation agenda.
Full Country Profile0
Immigration detainees
Not Available
Detained children
2017
3,074
New asylum applications
2020
78,395
Refugees
2020
2,860,495
International migrants
2020
Every day, tens of thousands of men, women, and children are detained across the globe for reasons related to their immigration status: asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, refugees, trafficking victims, torture survivors, stateless persons, and others. The GDP relentlessly pursues information about where they are locked up and how they are treated to ensure that their human rights are respected.
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Botswana has both administrative migration-related detention measures, including for the detention of refugees, as well as criminal penalties that can include lengthy imprisonment for migration offenses. These measures violate norms promoted by the Working Group, which says that migration infractions must not be subject to criminal penalties and there should be a prohibition on the detention of refugees, asylum seekers, and children. […]
Detained non-citizens in the UAE frequently face arbitrary arrests, poor conditions of detention, an inability to access information about their cases, and deportation without recourse to legal remedies. Their treatment may amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prohibited by Article 16 of the UN Convention against Torture. […]
Just as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed important lessons about the harm caused by migration-related detention, so too has Russia’s war on Ukraine revealed Europe’s selective humanitarianism. We have sought to engage these challenges proactively, effectively, and in partnership with allies and advocates at all levels, from local advocacy groups to networks spread across the international community. A common thread that ties our work together over the past year is our effort to ensure that global tools have local impact. […]
As Turkey has stepped up immigration controls there have been increasing reports of human rights abuses in detention centres and in other sites along its borders. Women have been subjected to abuses and gender-specific violations, including reports of rape of refugee women in some removal centres as well as humiliating strip searches. […]
In early March, shortly into Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Global Detention Project (GDP) began receiving email messages and videos from individuals claiming to know people who remained trapped in an immigration detention centre inside Ukraine, even as the war approached. … […]
Abdul Aziz Muhamat languished in detention on Manus Island for nearly six years, but throughout that time he was an indefatigable advocate for those trapped in Australia’s offshore detention system. Today, Aziz lives in Switzerland, where he was granted asylum after receiving Geneva’s prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2019. The GDP spoke to Aziz about his experiences, challenges he sees in making advocacy more effective, and his plans for the future. […]
