OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS
Immigration Detention in the Republic of Korea: Penalising People in Need of Protection
Over the last two decades, South Korea has implemented increasingly restrictive asylum and migrant worker policies. The government does not provide adequate data about detention, making it challenging to assess trends in the country, but observers report that this crackdown has recently grown in scale and intensity. Children, victims of trafficking, and other vulnerable groups can be subjected to indefinite detention; asylum seekers can be stranded for months in privately operated airport “holding areas”; and human rights bodies have repeatedly called for reforms in the country’s immigration detention centres. Read the full report.
Immigration Detention in the Netherlands: Prioritising Returns, in Europe and the Caribbean
The Netherlands places increasing numbers of foreigners—including asylum seekers, families, and children—in detention. The country’s Caribbean territories—specifically, Aruba and Curaçao—have also ramped up their removal efforts in recent years as thousands of Venezuelans have sought refuge on the islands. Read the full report.
Submission to the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice: Romania
The GDP submitted information to the Working Group ahead of its visit to Romania (24 February – 6 March). Taking note of the Working Group’s intention to pay particular attention to women and girls who encounter multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including migrants and asylum seekers, the submission highlights recent Romanian immigration detention practices that may be discriminatory with respect to the health, well-being, and legal standing of women and girls subject to migration control measures. Read the full submission.
NEWS + ACTIVITIES
Prison for Profit
On 12 March, GDP Director Michael Flynn will join Abdul Aziz Muhamat (2019 Martin Ennals Prize Winner) and journalist Yves Magat to discuss the privatisation of prisons and administrative detention as part of Geneva’s International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights 202. This panel discussion will follow a screening of Femke Van Velzen’s film, “Prison for Profit,” which examines G4S’s management of the Mangaung private prison in South Africa. (The event will be held in the Salle communale d’Anières.) For more information, and to book tickets, visit the FIFDH 2020 website.
Upcoming Meetings
In coming weeks, the GDP will be participating in several meetings and events in Geneva focusing on the rights of migrants.
- On 27 February, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants is holding a consultation with civil society groups to discuss his agenda for the year ahead, which includes two country visits as well as two thematic reports, on freedom of association and the detention of children.
- On 4 March, the UN Network on Migration is holding a briefing for Member States on the activities of the Network with respect to the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration to which civil society partners are invited to attend.
- On 30 March the Committee on Migrant Workers is holding an informal public meeting with NGOs and national human rights institutions in advance of its 32nd session, to be held from 30 March to 9 April 2020. During this session, the Committee will examine periodic reports on Cabo Verde, Chile, Paraguay, and Rwanda. The committee will also adopt lists of issues for reports on Syria, Congo, and Nigeria.
Worth Noting
In its February 2020 edition, the esteemed U.S. journal Harper’s publicised estimates of the largest child detaining countries in the world, based on statistics from the Global Detention Project, in its widely read “Harper’s Index.”
- Rank of the United States among countries with the highest rates of immigrant children in detention: 1
- Of Mexico: 2
- Number of refugees resettled in the United States in October [2019]: 0
GDP ON THE RECORD
- “Release Arrangements for Immigration Detainees are Medically Unsafe,” British Medical Journal, (368), 2020.
- “Harper’s Index,” Harper’s Magazine, February 2020.
- “Canada Has a Dismal Record of Locking up Migrants,” The Tyee, February 2020.
- “Non-Detention of Migrants: Some Facts and Figures,” PICUM, 2020.
- “Re-Thinking Public Criminology: Politics, Paradoxes, and Challenges,” E. Carrabine, M. Lee, and N. South, in: Routledge Handbook of Public Criminologies, K. Henne and R. Shah (eds.), Routledge, 2020.
- “Refugee Protection: Greece Country Report,” N. Leivaditi et al, RESPOND, 2020.
- “Ethical Aspects of Psychotherapy in Forced Migrants,” S. Ekblad, in: Intercultural Psychotherapy: For Immigrants, Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Ethnic Minority Patients, M. Schouler-Ocak and M. Kastrup, Springer, 2020.
- “Judicial Review of Immigration Detention in the UK, US and EU: From Principles to Practice,” J. Stefanelli, Hart, 2020.
- “The Protection of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors Under International Human Rights Law: Revisiting Old Concepts and Confronting New Challenges in Modern Migrant Flows,” E. Papoutsi, American University International Law Review, 35(2), 2020.
- “The Rise of Zero Tolerance and the Demise of Family,” M. Olivares, Georgia State University Law Review, 36(2), 2020.
- “Introducing De-Carceral Futures: Bridging Prison and Migrant Justice,” Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, February 2020.
- “La detenzione amministrativa dei migranti [Administrative Detention of Migrants,]” A. Valenti, Thesis, Sapienza – Faculty of Law, 2020.
