The Trump administration’s recent deportation of five migrants to the southern African country of Eswatini is the latest in the country’s unprecedented expansion of its immigration enforcement system. This has included growing numbers of migrant raids and arrests, massive injections of funding for Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), record numbers of detentions, and a proliferating range of overseas targets for “third-country deportations”–including, most recently, the tiny island nation of Palau. […]
Detention Blog
Algeria: Detention and Deportation in an “Informal Corridor of Expulsion”
In recent years, Algeria has ramped up its detention and deportation operations in response to mounting pressure from Europe. Working increasingly with both neighbouring and European countries, Algerian authorities have conducted targeted raids, used an extensive network of formal and informal detention sites, and carried out (often violent) crossborder pushbacks to Niger and elsewhere. […]
India Renews Efforts to Remove “Illegal Foreigners” in the Wake of Pahalgam Terrorist Attack
Since the Pahalgam terrorist attacks in Kashmir in April, anti-Islamic public and official attitudes across India have led to important ethnic groups in the country–including Rohingya and Bengali-speaking Muslims–being targeted for racial violence and increasing detention and deportation operations. […]
Djibouti: Use of US Military Base for Immigration Detention Purposes Raises Concerns
In May, eight men were flown from the United States to a U.S military facility in Djibouti, where they have since been detained in a converted shipping container. Here, detainees face extreme heat, lack of necessary medications, combat-esque movement restrictions, and poor quality air. The use of a military base for immigration detention related purposes, meanwhile, appears to be part of a wider U.S trend, raising serious concerns for detainees’ fundamental rights. […]
Mauritania: Mass Arrests and Deportations as EU Continues Efforts to Create “Bulwark” Against Irregular Migration
Under renewed pressure from the EU to prevent migrants from reaching the Canary Islands, in recent months Mauritanian authorities have arbitrarily arrested, detained, and expelled thousands of migrants. The West African state has come under repeated scrutiny in recent years for its detention and deportation practices, but the scale of the recent crackdown has attracted […]
Greece: Growing Pressure to End Pushbacks and Prevent Abuses in Migrant Detention Sites
Greek authorities continue to conduct illegal pushbacks at the country’s land and sea borders, according to a recent report from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. Noting ongoing allegations of systematic summary returns, despite the European Court of Human Rights’ condemnation of the practice in January this year, the Commissioner urges Greek authorities to “adopt a zero-tolerance approach” to summary returns and to ensure impartial investigations of allegations. […]
Libya: The Latest Target of the Rapidly Growing U.S. Deportation Scheme
This week, Reuters reported that the Trump administration plans to deport migrants to Libya–a country long criticised by the U.S and the wider international community for its abusive treatment of migrants and asylum seekers. Just in February, investigators uncovered two mass graves in the southeast of the country containing the bodies of dozens of migrants, some bearing evidence of gunshot wounds. […]
Yemen: US Airstrike Kills Dozens of Migrants at Detention Centre
In the early hours of Monday 28 April, a US airstrike is reported to have struck a detention facility in Yemen’s northern Sa’ada Governorate, killing dozens of migrants confined in the building. This is not the first time that a detention centre holding migrants has been struck in Yemen: another facility within the same compound was struck in 2022 leaving more than 90 dead. […]
Guest Opinion: “Cruelty Is Not My Flag: Contesting Arbitrary Detention and Deportations from the Dominican Republic”
In its latest efforts to remove Haitian migrants, authorities in the Dominican Republic have introduced a slate of new immigration control measures–amongst them a new protocol requiring the presence of immigration officers in hospital maternity wards and for women without paperwork to be deported immediately. This latest cruel and misogynistic policy further deepens migrant women’s vulnerabilities, increasing the obstacles they face in accessing vital public health services. […]
Russia: Weaponising Immigration Policies to Push Migrants into War and Launching a New “Expulsion Regime”
Russia is ramping up immigration enforcement to pressure migrants to join the frontline in Ukraine and increase deportations of people from various Asian countries. As part of the Kremlin’s efforts to bolster military strength, foreigners continue to be coerced into fighting in Ukraine–with many being threatened with deportation should they refuse to fight. And since […]
