Malaysia’s immigration enforcement regime—including detention, forced removals, criminal prosecution, and corporal punishment—is one of the world’s more punitive, arbitrary, and harmful systems. In a submission to the UPR, the GDP and APRRN highlight areas of particular concern. […]
China: Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review
In a submission to the Universal Periodic Review, the GDP and APRRN raise a number of concerns regarding immigration detention practices in Hong Kong – including the ongoing detention of children, arbitrary detention without established time limits, and the significant number of recent deaths and suicides in detention. […]
Trapped Between Borders: Tunisia’s Alarming Treatment of Sub-Saharan Migrants
Tunisia has come under renewed criticism from rights groups after authorities rounded up sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers and forcefully relocated them to a buffer zone between the Tunisian and Libyan border. Videos shared online show men, women, and children–some with injuries–stranded close to the sea, reportedly without any food or water. Surging Discrimination According […]
Submission: General Comment on Enforced Disappearances in the Context of Migration
The GDP has submitted comments to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances regarding its draft “General Comment on Enforced Disappearances in the Context of Migration.” About the CED General Comment Every year, thousands of migrants go missing en route to their destination country, or in the destination country itself. Among those missing are persons who […]
GUEST OPINION: Canada – Rejecting and Promoting Migrant Detention, All in a Day’s Work
By Anne-Rachelle Boulanger On 16 June 2023, two decisions were taken in Canada with important implications for immigration detention. First, the province of Ontario confirmed that it would no longer allow the federal government to detain migrants in its provincial prisons, in line with recent decisions in other provinces. But just a few hours after […]
Switzerland: GDP Assists Norwegian Delegation in Examining Operations at Geneva’s Frambois Detention Centre
In May, the Global Detention Project (GDP) assisted an official delegation from Norway’s Ministry of Justice in visiting the Frambois Detention Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The delegation was comprised of members of the Norwegian Supervisory Board for Forced Deportations and Immigration Detention, which monitors operations at the Trandum immigration detention centre, located near Oslo. The […]
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Secrecy and Confusion Surrounding New Detention Centre for “Fake Asylum Seekers”
In 2022, the EU announced plans to fund a new detention unit within the grounds of a Temporary Reception Centre near Bosnia’s north-western border with Croatia. In recent months, however, significant confusion and controversy has emerged surrounding the centre. […]
Cambodia & Southeast Asia: Cyber Scam Trafficking Victims Facing Detention and Prosecution
In a recent report to the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights, a group of NGOs highlight a growing pattern of human rights violations across Southeast Asia involving trafficking rackets that are fuelled by scam online employment schemes. The report echoes recent information that the Global Detention Project has received from sources in Cambodia about […]
Chile: Human Rights Monitoring Bodies Denounce Proposed Legal Reforms Increasing Detention Measures for Undocumented Migrants and Asylum Seekers
In a communication to Chile, a group of UN experts have condemned proposed reforms to the country’s migration and asylum legislation. If approved, the reforms would provide criminal penalties for irregular entry and stay, including prison sentences and fines, and increase administrative detention measures for people awaiting deportation. The effort also reflects policy proposals in […]
2022 Annual Report: Building Partnerships, Harnessing Data, Ending Arbitrary Immigration Detention
Policy-makers, scholars, and advocates often obsess over detention numbers: How many people were detained last year? How many more people are being detained now? How many are detained in a given detention centre? But there is another statistic that receives much less attention: how many people die in immigration detention? […]
