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 ProfileYes
Has laws regulating migration-related detention?
642,948
International Migrants
427,706
Refugees
16,034
Asylum Applications
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 Profile832
Migration Detainees
43
Total Number of Detained Children
685
Total Immigration Detention Capacity
219
Deportations/Forced Removals
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 Profile90,000
Migration Detainees
1,030
Total Number of Detained Children
21,530
Total Immigration Detention Capacity
150
Detainee Deaths
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 Profile10,844
Migration Detainees
4
Number of Detention Centres
Yes
Has laws regulating migration-related detention?
1,418
Total Immigration Detention Capacity
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
In March and April 2025, 252 Venezuelans were expelled from the United States to El Salvador under a secretive bilateral agreement between the two countries. Upon arrival, the Venezuelans were immediately detained and held incommunicado in the notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo/ Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a maximum security prison established by President Bukele […]
In partnership with the International Legal Initiative (ILI), the GDP has submitted information to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) highlighting the country’s detention and deportation of child refugees and asylum seekers. This submission was prepared ahead of the CRC’s upcoming 101st session, due to be held in August-September 2026. […]
Since late 2025, the United States has been deporting individuals, including those with existing protection orders, to Equatorial Guinea under a secretive bilateral temporary transfer agreement that is similar to others set up by the US with countries across Africa and Latin America. Reports indicate that upon arrival the deportees have been detained in a […]
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. […]
Together with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Ghana-based Democracy Hub, and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, the Global Detention Project has urged the UN Committee on Migrant Workers to assess the country’s recent agreement with the United States to accept deported third-country nationals, as well as its subsequent detention and removal of these individuals. […]
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. […]
