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 ProfileNo Data
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.
Learn more
The Global Detention Project’s Executive Committee has unanimously elected Sahar Okhovat as its new President, replacing outgoing President Roberta Cecchetti. Sahar is a Senior Policy Officer at the Refugee Council of Australia and previously served as the Vice Chair of the detention committee for the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network and as a Humanitarian Observer […]
To support the UN CMW’s work developing its new General Comment (No.6) on the Convergence of the Convention and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the GDP has provided comments – particularly regarding Articles 16 and 17 of the ICRMW and Objective 13 of the GCM. […]
The third instalment of the GDP’s webinar series on how civil society organisations can mobilise international and regional human rights monitors to protect the rights of detained refugees and migrants focuses on the various mechanisms established by the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) that can help prevent human rights violations in migration-related detention, including the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) and National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs). […]
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. […]
