Thailand has ramped up the detention of Vietnamese migrants with reports indicating that Vietnamese officials have been given access to Thai detention facilities to coerce detainees to return. These practices, alongside high-profile cases of extradition and arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, reveal persistent breaches of human rights norms despite the fact that Thailand remains a UN Network on Migration “champion country” for implementation of the Global Compact for Migration. […]
Lithuania: Follow-Up Report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
This submission assesses Lithuania’s implementation of recommendations set out in the CESCR’s 2023 Concluding Observations, specificallly addressing the treatment of asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants. […]
Australia: UN Experts Raise Serious Concerns Regarding Country’s Migrant Detention System
In December, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention delivered a sobering assessment of Australia’s immigration detention system, highlighting numerous policies that call into question the country’s adherence to international human rights obligations. […]
Malaysia: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Together with the Malaysia-based North South Initiative (NSI) and Myanmar Ethnics Organization (MEO), the GDP has urged the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to demand that Malaysia immediately stop detaining child refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants for migration-related reasons. […]
Externalisation and the Emergence of a Global Immigration Detention Gulag Archipelago: Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
Drawing attention to the connection between externalisation and the spread of arbitrary immigration detention practices across the globe, this submission highlights the ongoing violations committed against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers forcibly removed to third countries under migration and asylum management deals. […]
Israel: UN Torture Committee Highlights Harmful Treatment of Detained Migrants and Refugees
The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) has echoed concerns raised by the Global Detention Project and our partner in Israel, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants (HRM), regarding the country’s detention of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. While the CAT review was dominated by human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank, the Committee highlighted poor conditions in immigration detention facilities, as well as worrying legislative developments that place non-nationals at risk of both indefinite detention and refoulement. […]
Uzbekistan: Cooperation with EU and US Raises Questions about Human Rights Obligations
Uzbekistan’s immigration laws and practices have received little international attention. However, new arrangements with both the European Union and the United States are raising questions about the country’s commitments to its human rights obligations. […]
Lebanon: Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Lebanon’s legal framework for immigration enforcement does not provide protection to children, leaving migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking children vulnerable to detention, imprisonment, and expulsion. In a joint submission, the GDP and CLDH highlighted concerns to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, ahead of its preparation of its List of Issues Prior to Reporting. […]
Externalisation: ACHPR Calls on African States to Protect Migrants Amid Rising Deals
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has issued a new resolution cautioning against the externalisation of migration governance and urging African States to safeguard the rights and dignity of migrants deported from non-African countries. Adopted amidst a surge in bilateral agreements between African governments and external partners–in particular the United States and the European Union–the resolution echoes similar warnings from other international monitoring bodies and underscores the serious risks associated with externalised migration enforcement schemes. […]
Kosovo, Emerging Partner in Efforts to Outsource Migration Control
In October, reports revealed that Kosovo was in discussion with the UK to receive rejected asylum seekers as part of the UK government’s efforts to set up “return hubs” abroad–a move observers have condemned as punitive and potentially threatening migrants’ rights. Both the United States and Denmark have also made deals with the country in recent years, part of a broader and increasingly concerning trend of externalising migration controls, including detention, to third countries. […]
