On 20 March, the GDP was invited to make a presentation about our report “Harm Reduction in Immigration Detention” at the annual meeting of the Global Working Group of National Societies Working in Immigration Detention, a gathering of National Societies of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement co-hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Last week, reports emerged concerning a 24-year-old Honduran woman’s premature labour and subsequent delivery of a stillborn baby while in custody at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Texas. While officials were quick to offer the awkward qualification that “for investigative and reporting purposes, a stillbirth is not considered an in-custody death,” the incident nevertheless added fuel to the growing criticism of the Trump administration’s treatment of vulnerable individuals in detention.

Documenting the shift from “reception” to “detention” of asylum seekers at EU borders and the erosion of a fundamental right at the heart of European democracy, the right to liberty. The Red Line Project is a collaborative initiative led by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and including the Global Detention Project, the Bulgarian Foundation for Access to Rights, the Greek Council for Refugees, and the Italian Council for Refugees.

On 15 November, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and the Global Detention Project (GDP) hosted a briefing and discussion for NGOs, IGOs, and diplomatic missions on the role social media and other new digital technologies play in migration journeys, with a special emphasis on their use in the context of detention and migration control in North Africa and the Mediterranean.