The authors describe the normative framework governing immigration detention established in core international treaties and discuss how human rights bodies apply this framework when reviewing states’ policies and practices. Their assessment of the impact and implementation of fundamental norms reveals gaps in the international protection regime and highlights how states’ responses to this regime have shaped contemporary immigration detention systems. […]
Special Reports & Working PapersThematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
Thematic reports and scholarly working papers produced wholly or in part by the Global Detention Project (GDP) and written by GDP staff members, associated researchers, or partner organisations.
Obstacles to Reforming Family Detention in the United States: Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 20
The prospect of ending the detention of immigrant families in the US appears more remote than ever as the new president begins implementing his restrictive immigration agenda. This paper, authored by the former director of ICE’s Office of Detention Policy and Planning, provides an inside look at the failure of the Obama administration to roll back family detention and urges renewed calls for reforms in the face of President Trump’s promised crackdown. […]
Challenges to Providing Mental Health Care in Immigration Detention: Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 19
The global expansion of immigration detention creates an imperative for the mental health community to develop specialized models of care. The authors employ lessons learned from their experiences in Australia to provide a framework for understanding the corrosive nature of immigration detention and suggest clinical approaches that may be adapted to assist detainees in developing resilience to such settings.
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Briefing on Multi-national Companies that Provide Immigration Detention Services
The UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries plans to include an assessment of human rights challenges posed by the operations of private security companies in detention centres and prisons in its 2017 report to the UN General Assembly. To assist in the Working Group’s preparatory work, the GDP provided a briefing on various […]
Detention, Deportation, and Waiting: Toward a Theory of Migrant Detainability: GDP Working Paper No. 18
The global expansion of deportation regimes has spurred an analogous expansion of migrant detention. This GDP Working Paper situates the analysis of immigration detention in the framework of contemporary critical theory, interrogating the economy of different conditionalities that undergird the distinct categories of migrants who are subjected to detention power. […]
Is Infiltrating Migrant Prisons the Most Effective Way to Challenge Detention Regimes? The Case of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance: GDP Working Paper No. 17
The authors highlight efforts by undocumented youth in the United States to “infiltrate” immigration detention centres to argue that civil disobedience, a strategy often ignored by allies and advocates of immigrants, can be an effective tool to counter growing detention and deportation systems. […]
Capitalism and Immigration Control: What Political Economy Reveals about the Growth of Detention Systems: GDP Working Paper #16
Assessments of the political economy of detention point to a key challenge that is common to countries across the globe: how economic insecurities of host population’s translate into xenophobia and ethno-nationalist demands for more deportations, detentions, and walls. […]
The Constitutionalisation of Immigration Detention: Between EU Law and the European Convention on Human Rights: GDP Working Paper #15
This paper argues that the increasing regulation of immigration detention in EU law has led to more constitutional protection for detainees, however some new regulations are resulting in more people being detained. […]
Engaging Governments on Alternatives to Immigration Detention
A leading organizer of the global effort to promote alternatives to immigration detention explores advocacy strategies for spurring detention reforms and the rationale behind the alternatives campaign. […]
The Impact of Investigative Journalism on U.S. Immigration Detention Reform
An award-winning New York Times reporter reflects on the challenges journalists face in covering immigration detention and the failure of reform efforts in the United States. […]
