Since the 2023 coup, Niger’s migration landscape has changed dramatically, with new legislation tightening entry, stay, and movement, criminalising irregular migration, and granting broad powers to enforcement officers. In a joint submission to the UPR, the GDP, JMED Niger, and REMIDDH raise concerns over arbitrary and harmful detention, poor conditions, and abuse of migrants, urging Niger to amend its policies to ensure detention is used only as a last resort and in line with international human rights standards. […]
Publications & Events
India: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
In a joint submission with the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, the GDP highlights concerns to CEDAW regarding the detention, refoulement, and other human rights violations faced by women refugees and migrants in India. […]
Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants: Mauritania
Amid growing European pressure, Mauritania has increasingly subjected migrants to arbitrary arrest, detention, and forced expulsion—particularly in the past year. Due to limited transparency and the ad hoc nature of these practices, comprehensive data on all detention facilities remains unavailable. Nevertheless, the GDP has documented the use of multiple sites for immigration detention. […]
The GDP Announces Changes to its Executive Committee
The Global Detention Project’s Executive Committee today announces a leadership change, with the appointment of Kirsten Sandberg as the Board’s Interim President, replacing Sahar Okhovat. The former Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Ms. Sandberg joined the GDP’s Executive Committee in 2019. She has been an unwavering source of […]
Joint Letter on the Impact of the UN Liquidity Crisis and the UN80 Initiative on Children’s Rights
In a joint letter, more than 100 signatories–including the Global Detention Project–have urged the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva and New York and the Secretary-General of the UN to ensure that any reforms proposed in the name of efficiency do not weaken the protection and promotion of children’s rights. […]
Morocco: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking children in Morocco are extremely vulnerable to detention and other harmful immigration enforcement measures despite years of efforts by civil society organisations and human rights monitoring bodies to advocate for reforms. […]
Mexico’s Immigration Policies and Human Rights – Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 26
In this critical examination of Mexico’s history of immigration control, authors Flynn and Ortiz-Gonzalez demonstrate the country’s use of euphemistic language to reframe coercive practices as humanitarian ones, concealing the persistence of punitive migration enforcement and masking its on-going role as a surrogate enforcer of U.S migration control.
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Oman: Submission to the Universal Periodic Review
Despite the introduction of significant new legislation (including the 2023 Labour Law) since Oman’s third periodic review by the UPR Working Group, concerning protection gaps still remain–leaving vulnerable groups, particularly migrant domestic workers, at continued risk of detention and deportation.
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Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Since late June, Iran has expelled more than half a million Afghan refugees–coinciding with the country’s brief war with Israel. “We urge the Special Rapporteur not to overlook the plight of the millions of undocumented Afghan refugees in the country, whose plight often gets overlooked amidst the surge of conflicts, tragedies, and humanitarian crises afflicting the greater Middle East today.” […]
From Pledges to Practice: Scaling Up Responses on Alternatives to Detention, Protection at Sea and Trafficking
On 7 July, the GDP’s Refugee Advocacy Coordinator spoke at a UNHCR-led event on the harmful impacts of immigration detention, as well as the emergence and on-going challenge of ‘alternatives to detention’ (ATDs) and how we might reframe ATDs from a harm-reduction point of view. […]
