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 […]
News & Events
NEWSLETTER: The Detention of Migrant Workers in El Salvador and Morocco
In September 2020, the GDP provided two submissions to the Committee on Migrant Workers (El Salvador and Morocco). Our monthly newsletter provides a full roundup. […]
Amendments to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007
For over a decade, the GDP has relentlessly pushed states to provide better migration detention data, in particular in the European Union, where Eurostat maintains a wealth of statistics on a range of key immigration enforcement measures—except detention. Until now. In June, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted proposed reforms to […]
NEWSLETTER: Immigration Detention in Germany; Detention Concerns in Tunisia and Cyprus
In August 2020, the GDP published its latest report on Germany, as well as two submissions to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (Tunisia and Cyprus). Our monthly newsletter provides a full roundup. […]
NEWSLETTER: Immigration detention in Jordan and Algeria; Ongoing concerns in Oman and Lebanon
LATEST PUBLICATIONS Immigration Detention in Jordan: Detained by employers, locked inside refugee camps, pushed back into conflict zones Jordan has long played an important role in hosting refugees from neighbouring Arab states and has the second-largest share of refugees per capita worldwide. Although the country has at times been praised for its reception practices, arrests, forced […]
NEWSLETTER: Detention in Hungary; Torture Concerns in Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina
LATEST PUBLICATIONS Immigration Detention in Hungary: Transit Zone or Twilight Zone? Hungary’s efforts to block asylum seekers were at the centre of an important May 2020 European Union Court of Justice ruling concerning its “transit zone” detention sites, located along the border with Serbia. For years, Hungary refused to acknowledge that people were “detained” in […]
Pandemic Borders Webinar: Pandemic Vulnerabilities
On 24 June, the GDP’s Executive Director will be participating in a webinar hosted by Ryerson University (Toronto) exploring the particular vulnerabilities migrants and asylum seekers face during the Covid-19 pandemic. Michael Flynn will join Margarita Pintin-Perez (OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants), Petra Molnar (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto), and Dr. […]
NEWSLETTER: Spain’s Response to Covid-19; A Paradigm Shift in Argentina
LATEST PUBLICATIONS Immigration Detention in Spain: A Rapid Response to Covid-19 On 6 May 2020, Spain reported that for the first time in its history, its immigration detention facilities, “Foreign Internment Centres,” were empty. These centres had long been the target of activists, local politicians, and human rights bodies, who argued that they were unnecessary and […]
Joint NGO Letter: UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies During the COVID-19 Pandemic
As a result of Covid-19, in-person sessions of the UN human rights sessions have been postponed until at least June. While the suspension is affecting the work of the treaty bodies, it is important that they undertake many of the mandated activities such as considerations of individual communications and urgent actions, adoption of lists of issues (LOIs) and lists of issues prior […]
NEWSLETTER: Launching the Covid-19 Global Immigration Detention Platform
THE COVID-19 GLOBAL IMMIGRATION DETENTION PLATFORM As the coronavirus pandemic changes the lives of societies around the world, countries are being forced to alter their detention and deportation decisions. Many countries have already begun releasing detainees because of their inability to deport them. Others have been forced to close detention centres because of the spread […]
