Mexico has one of the largest immigration detention systems in the world, employing several dozen detention centres—euphemistically called "estaciones migratorias"—and detaining tens of thousands of people every year.
Full Country Profile59,155
Immigration detainees
2020
53,507
Detained children
2019
70,366
New asylum applications
2019
28,517
Refugees
2019
1,060,707
International migrants
2019
Located at the juncture between South and Central America, Colombia has become an important transit point for migrants and asylum seekers. The country opened its first detention facilities in 2013, as part of a national plan to "strengthen immigration control."
Full Country Profile2,911
Immigration detainees
2018
Not Available
Detained children
2017
10,621
New asylum applications
2019
634
Refugees
2019
1,142,319
International migrants
2019
Paraguay has not emphasised detention in its immigration policies nor has it established a formal immigration detention system. While the law provides for the detention of non-nationals for migration-related reasons—to ensure expulsion—it appears to be rarely applied.
Full Country ProfileNot Available
Immigration detainees
2019
Not Available
Detained asylum seekers
2019
Not Available
Detained children
2019
0
Long-term centres
2020
1,071
New asylum applications
2019
Azerbaijan lauds the operations at its immigration detention centres, which opened less than a decade ago. But with civil society tightly controlled, there are few independent reports detailing detention conditions.
Full Country Profile1,237
Immigration detainees
2019
Not Available
Detained children
2017
2
Long-term centres
2020
712
New asylum applications
2019
1,109
Refugees
2019
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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This book offers a unique comparative assessment of the evolution of immigration detention systems in European Union member states since the onset of the “refugee crisis.” By applying an analytical framework premised on international human rights law in assessing domestic detention regimes, the book reveals the extent to which EU legislation has led to the adoption of laws and practices that may disregard fundamental rights and standards. […]
In a submission to the Committee on Migrant Workers ahead of the publication of its Draft General Comment No.5, the GDP has submitted information regarding the General Comment’s treatment of the role of necessity and proportionality in immigration detention decision-making, and in particular the function of ATDs in establishing whether detention is both necessary and proportionate in all cases. […]
Earlier this month, leaks revealed that the UK government has considered plans to send asylum seekers to offshore “processing” facilities stretching from Europe to North Africa to Asia, including in Moldova, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, and even Ascension Island and St Helena. According to the Guardian, which obtained the documents, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and […]
As the coronavirus pandemic changes the lives of societies around the world, countries are being forced to alter their detention and deportation decisions. The GDP has launched a new, dedicated Covid-19 global tracking platform to monitor governments’ treatment of immigration detainees during the crisis. […]
The “refugee crisis” helped spur a “tech turn” in how people travel across borders and how governments and others respond to these movements. Everyone from civil society organisations—including the Global Detention Project—and individual activists to humanitarian technologists, government officials, and international bureaucrats have experimented with social media and other new forms of digital technology to […]
“Crossing a Red Line” is the final report of the Red Line Project, a collaborative initiative led by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee that was aimed at documenting the shift from “reception” to “detention” in EU border regions and the implications of this shift on asylum seekers. The project also counted on the participation of the Global Detention Project, the Bulgarian Foundation for Access to Rights, the Greek Council for Refugees, and the Italian Council for Refugees. […]
