Another Third-Country Removal Scheme Ending with Detention

This year, the Trump administration has quietly deported seventeen men and women to Cameroon under a murky arrangement that is part of broader U.S. efforts to send “unremovable” migrants and asylum seekers to third countries. Upon arrival in the capital Yaoundé, the deportees were detained in an ad hoc facility and threatened with removal.

Full Country Profile

Yes

Has laws regulating migration-related detention?

642,948

International Migrants

427,706

Refugees

16,034

Asylum Applications

Assessing the Country’s Implementation of CESCR Recommendations

In 2023, the CESCR issued key recommendations to Lithuania on asylum seeker and migrant rights—but serious issues remain, including legalised pushbacks, evidence of refoulement, a failure to prohibit the detention of children, and arbitrary confinement in quarantine facilities.

Full Country Profile

832

Migration Detainees

43

Total Number of Detained Children

685

Total Immigration Detention Capacity

219

Deportations/Forced Removals

The GDP and Partners Call on Child Rights Committee to Demand End to Immigration Detention of Children

Malaysia’s immigration enforcement regime is one of the world’s most punitive, arbitrary, and harmful detention systems. Children, like adults, are subjected to these enforcement measures, exposing them to acute risk of abuse and rights violations.

Full Country Profile

21,530

Total Immigration Detention Capacity

1,030

Total Number of Detained Children

21

Detention Centres

150

Detainee Deaths

Detention “Shelters,” International Isolation, Growing Migration Pressures

Although conditions in Taiwan’s detention centres have frequently been criticised, they have received little international scrutiny because of China’s opposition to Taiwan’s UN membership.

Full Country Profile

10,844

Migration Detainees

4

Number of Detention Centres

Yes

Has laws regulating migration-related detention?

1,418

Total Immigration Detention Capacity

Using data and analysis to promote the human rights of migrant detainees

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people are detained across the globe for reasons related to their immigration status, including children, asylum seekers, 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

Map of the Detention centres

Featured Publications

Annual Reports

2025 Annual Report: Building Momentum to Roll Back Immigration Detention

The Global Detention Project 2025 Annual Report chronicles a year of expanding research, advocacy, and global engagement amid rapidly evolving migration control regimes. From exposing abusive detention practices and opaque deportation arrangements to strengthening partnerships with UN bodies, civil society, and affected communities, the report captures growing momentum to challenge immigration detention and advance respect for migrants’, asylum seekers’, and refugees’ fundamental rights worldwide. […]

Read More…

Detention Blog

Serbia: Rights at Risk Amidst Ongoing Ad Hoc, De-Facto Detention

Although Serbia maintains official immigration detention facilities, migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers continue to be deprived of their liberty in a range of informal sites where their fundamental rights are violated. Testimonies from former detainees and reports by the country’s National Preventive Mechanism also highlight poor detention conditions in both formal and informal settings–with limited access to health care remaining a particular concern–and vulnerable groups including children remain at risk of detention. […]

Read More…

Submissions & Recommendations

Externalisation and the Emergence of a Global Immigration Detention Gulag Archipelago: Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

Drawing attention to the connection between externalisation and the spread of arbitrary immigration detention practices across the globe, this submission highlights the ongoing violations committed against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers forcibly removed to third countries under migration and asylum management deals. […]

Read More…

Detention Blog

Externalisation: ACHPR Calls on African States to Protect Migrants Amid Rising Deals 

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has issued a new resolution cautioning against the externalisation of migration governance and urging African States to safeguard the rights and dignity of migrants deported from non-African countries. Adopted amidst a surge in bilateral agreements between African governments and external partners–in particular the United States and the European Union–the resolution echoes similar warnings from other international monitoring bodies and underscores the serious risks associated with externalised migration enforcement schemes. […]

Read More…

Read More