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. […]
Publications & Events
Ghana: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers
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. […]
Guatemala: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers
In a submission to the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers ahead of its adoption of a List of Issues Prior to Reporting for Guatemala, the Global Detention Project and the American Friends Service Committee called on the Committee to request detailed information from Guatemala regarding its recent agreement with the United States to accept deported third-country nationals. Together, we also urged the Committee to seek information on the detention and removal of these individuals to enable effective scrutiny of the impacts of this scheme. […]
MSF General Assembly Keynote: The Global Expansion of Immigration Detention, “Unleashed from Human Rights”
11 April 2026 In a keynote address at Médecins Sans Frontières‘General Assembly in Italy, the GDP’s Executive Director issued a stark warning: immigration detention is not only expanding worldwide—it is becoming more punitive, less accountable, and increasingly detached from basic human rights standards. Alongside panellists Stefano Anastasia (the Guarantor for the rights of detainees for […]
Trinidad and Tobago: Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review
Since 2018 Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has experienced unprecedented flows of migrants and asylum seekers from Venezuela, many of them entering via irregular channels. The country’s legislation, however, treats irregular entry as a criminal offence and it continues to lack asylum-specific legislation, leaving all irregular arrivals vulnerable to arrest and detention upon arrival. Together with our partner in the Caribbean, the Caribbean Human Rights Centre, we highlighted shared concerns regarding the country’s immigration detention policies and practices to the Universal Periodic Review Working Group–and called for important changes to ensure respect for non-nationals’ rights. […]
Thailand: Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review
Despite legal safeguards and stated commitments to protect migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers—including those in detention—Thailand’s treatment of these groups continues to fall short of international standards. Together with our partner, the Cross Cultural Foundation, we raised multiple concerns with the Universal Periodic Review’s Working Group, urging critical reforms to the country’s detention policies and practices and broader compliance with its international human rights obligations. […]
Cyprus: Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
In a new submission, the Global Detention Project has urged the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to demand that Cyprus end its harmful migrant detention policies–which include the continued use of police holding cells; arbitrary and de facto detention in Pournara Reception Centre; and prison-like detention conditions in Menoyia Detention Centre. The […]
Serbia: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
In a joint report with Collective Aid, the GDP has highlighted serious and systemic concerns regarding Serbia’s immigration detention policies and practices–including routine use of arbitrary, ad hoc, detention; inadequate access to justice and assistance; the detention of vulnerable groups; and poor detention conditions. In light of the Committee’s Joint General Recommendation no.39 (/no. 8 […]
Djibouti: The GDP Submits Information Request to the National Human Rights Commission
The Global Detention Project has issued an information request to Djibouti’s National Human Rights Commission (Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme [CNDH]), requesting information regarding its 2024/2025 Annual Report on the situation of migrants in detention centres in the country. According to Article 11 of Law No.59 Concerning the Organization and Operation of the National […]
Mauritania: The GDP Submits Information Request to the National Human Rights Commission
The Global Detention Project has issued an information request to Mauritania’s National Human Rights Commission (Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme [CNDH]), requesting information regarding its reports detailing migrant detention centre visits. To date, we have not received a response. The CNDH has the authority to visit detention centres, allowing it to monitor conditions, document […]
