Welcome to the Global Detention Project’s monthly newsletter. For any questions about our content, please contact us at: admin@globaldetentionproject.org
OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS
Immigration Detention in Sweden: Increasing Restrictions and Deportations, Growing Civil Society Resistance
Sweden used to be lauded for its comparatively humane treatment of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. However, since the onset of the “refugee crisis,” the country has introduced a series of restrictive immigration control measures and the domestic political environment has become increasingly hostile. Even as the numbers of refugee applicants have steadily fallen, the country has continued to increase its detention capacity, detaining more individuals and for longer periods. While detention conditions compare favourably to those of neighbouring states, there are growing concerns about deficiencies in the provision of health care services for detainees. Read the full report here.
Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Niger
Niger has long been a country of origin as well as of transit; recently, a steady flow of migrants evacuated from North Africa has also begun arriving in the country. As Niger faces mounting international pressure to better manage migration within its borders, there are growing concerns that the country will resort to detention measures in handling migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. In this submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the GDP urges restraint in the use of detention, and lists key questions regarding the country’s immigration regime—particularly regarding the placement of children in detention—that Nigerien authorities should be asked to address. Read the full submission here.
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
The Dilemmas of the International Organisation for Migration
In June, Antonio Vitorino was elected Director General of the IOM. Formerly a minister in the Portuguese government of the Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, Vitorino is only the second non-American director in the IOM’s history. Given the historical and political proximity between the IOM and the U.S. government, his election (and the decision to overlook the U.S. candidate, Ken Isaacs) is a notable development. In this article for “The Conversation” (France), GDP Researcher Mariette Grange and Antoine Pécoud (Paris 13 University) examine the IOM’s relations with the U.S. and the organisation’s involvement in migration control “dirty work.” Read the full article (in French) here.
A New Gulag Archipelago
GDP Executive Director Michael Flynn and Researcher Izabella Majcher participated in the third Refugee Law Initiative Annual Conference at the University of London on 17-18 July. Majcher chaired a panel on “The Role of ‘Third Countries’ in Asylum Law,” and Flynn gave a presentation entitled “A New Gulag Archipelago: Protecting the Rights of Refugees and Migrants Deprived of Their Liberty in the Immigration Detention Belt Emerging across the Global South.” The presentation argued that while states’ evasion tactics and externalisation efforts represent formidable challenges in refugee protection, the current “crisis” also underscores the existence of unexpected—and often underused—opportunities in promoting the rights of detained migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, including notably at the Committee on Migrant Workers. More information about the event is available here.
Europe, Migrations, and the Mediterranean: Human Mobilities and Intercultural Challenges
The 15th IMISCOE Annual Conference took place in Barcelona on 2-4 July 2018. Organised by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the conference brought together the European migration scholarship community to draw attention to geographical dimensions of migration and to provide a forum for methodological discussions linking Mediterranean and migration studies. GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher gave a presentation on data protection in the Schengen Information System (SIS). The presentation—titled “The Pan-European Entry Ban Based on a SIS Alert: What Protection of Personal Data?”—explored whether safeguards contained in the SIS II Regulation offer adequate protection of personal data. More information is available here.
GDP ON THE RECORD
NORTH AMERICA
- “Interview with Michael Flynn: Uncomfortable Facts about Canadian Immigration – and the Lack of Transparency Regarding Detained Persons,” D. Smith, Global News Radio, 3 July 2018.
- “Estados Unidos: Crueldad sin precedentes contra los inmigrantes y sus hijos [United States: Unprecedented Cruelty Against Immigrants and their Children],” B. Hackwell, Periodico Alternativo, June 2018.
- “Trump’s Family Incarceration Policy Threatens Healthy Child Development,” L. Schochet, Center for American Progress, 10 July 2018.
- “End Knee-Jerk Detentions,” Editorial Board, The Star, 24 July 2018.
- “US “Zero-Tolerance” Immigration Policy Still Violates Fundamental Human Rights,” J. Davis, Salon, 3 July 2018.
- “Canada Slammed for ‘Culture of Secrecy’ Over Immigration Detention,” N. Keung, Toronto Star, 27 June 2018.
- “Health Care Providers Across Canada Call for End to Family Detention,” C. Solyom, Montreal Gazette, 27 June 2018.
- “Canadian Border Services Lack Oversight, But That’s Only Part of the Problem,” V.Mochoma, Toronto Star, 28 June 2018.
- “CBSA to Change Way it Handles Detention of Immigrants,” A. Desmarais, iPolitics, 28 June 2018.
- “What Trump’s Immigrant Detention Policy Is – And What It Is Not,” G. Keetch, GonPolitics, 28 June 2018.
- “US “Zero-Tolerance” Immigration Policy Still Violating Fundamental Human Rights Laws,” J. Davis, The Conversation, 27 June 2018.
- “Monitoring Immigration Detention at the Borders of Europe: Report on a Pilot Project in Greece, Hungary, Turkey and Italy, 2016-2017,” H. Singh Bhui, M. Bosworth, and A. Fili,Border Criminologies, 18 June 2018.
- “Immigration Detention: An Anglo Model,” C. Mainwaring and M.L. Cook, Migration Studies, 28 June 2018.
- “Lo de Salvini ocurre en el Mediterráneo central no es caprichoque [What Happens in the Central Mediterannean is Not the Whim of Salvini],” Maestroviejo, 10 July 2018.
- “Coping with the Libyan Migration Crisis,” M. Baldwin-Edwards, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 29 May 2018.
- “Tunisia’s Role in the EU External Migration Policy: Crimmigration Law, Illegal Practices, and their Impact on Human Rights,” V. Badalič, Journal of International Migration and Integration, 29 June 2018.
- Border Criminologies Video Project, 24 July 2018.
- “Let’s Take a Look at How 7 Other Places Are Handling Immigration Differently,” M. Stein, Odyssey, 3 July 2018.
- “Les Dilemmes de l’Organisation Internationale Pour Les Migrations [The Dilemmas of the International Organisation for Migration],“ M. Grange and A. Pecoud, The Conversation, 3 July 2018.
- “Spain with the Largest Number of New Arrivals in 2018, Police Clashes at North African Enclave,” Are You Syrious? Daily News Digest, 26 July 2018.
- “Carceral Circuity: New Directions in Carceral Geography,” N. Gill and D. Conlon, Progress in Human Geography, 42 (2), 2018.
- “Unfree Labour in Immigration Detention: Exploitation and Coercion of a Captive Immigrant Workforce,” K. Bales and L. Mayblin, Economy and Society, 4 July 2018.
- “Protection of Migrants from Enforced Disappearance: A Human Rights Perspective,” B. Duhaime and A. Thibault, International Review of the Red Cross, 4 July 2018.
