Notions of the unwanted “other,” the “illegal” migrant, and the “bogus” refugee are increasingly prominent in public discourse, lending support to stringent border control policies whereby states are increasingly relying upon the use of detention to control the movement of foreigners. The detrimental impact of these trends on the health and wellbeing of migrants and asylum seekers will be explored at the conference “Challenging Migrant Detention: Human Rights, Advocacy and Mental Health” in Montréal, Canada, this week. Organised by UNHCR, McGill University Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law, University of Toronto International Human Rights Program, University of Oxford Border Criminologies, and Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en droit de l’immigration, the international conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, advocates, and migrants to discuss global trends and avenues for change in immigration detention. The GDP’s Michael Flynn will be participating in the conference and give a presentation on the GDP’s database, the Global Immigration Detention Observatory. More information about the conference is available here.
