Since early 2025, Crete and the nearby island of Gavdos have seen a sharp increase in the number of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants arriving from Libya. The islands have quickly become the newest frontline to Greece’s increasingly hardline approach to migration: in July, the government suspended all asylum claims for anyone arriving irregularly from North Africa for a three-month period. At the same time, a new legislative proposal is being considered which would tighten migration rules in line with the new, but not yet adopted, EU Return Regulation. This would introduce a slate of amendments, including the introduction of broader grounds for detention and an extension of the maximum length of detention. […]
Sudanese Refugees in Egypt: “Voluntary” Returns Amidst Intensified Detention and Deportation Campaign
Egypt has recently returned hundreds of Sudanese nationals as part of a new “voluntary” transportation scheme that is jointly administered by Egypt and Sudan. Although officials describe the initiative in humanitarian terms, the returns–in addition to the hundreds of thousands of additional “voluntary” returns that have been reported since last year–coincide with larger efforts by Egypt to ramp up the targeting of refugees and asylum seekers for detention and deportation. The crackdown is creating a climate of fear amongst refugee communities and has raised questions about whether the returns can be considered “voluntary.” […]
Joint Letter on the Impact of the UN Liquidity Crisis and the UN80 Initiative on Children’s Rights
In a joint letter, more than 100 signatories–including the Global Detention Project–have urged the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in Geneva and New York and the Secretary-General of the UN to ensure that any reforms proposed in the name of efficiency do not weaken the protection and promotion of children’s rights. […]
European Court Ruling Challenges Italy–Albania Detention Deal and Other Externalisation Plans
On 1 August, the European Court of Justice delivered a landmark ruling on Italy’s application of the “safe country of origin” concept, delivering a blow to the country’s offshore asylum processing scheme in Albania. Beyond Italy, the ruling has wider implications across Europe, where it is likely to impact new EU asylum regulations due to come into force in June 2026, as well as EU Member States’ efforts to externalise their own migration management schemes. […]
Morocco: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking children in Morocco are extremely vulnerable to detention and other harmful immigration enforcement measures despite years of efforts by civil society organisations and human rights monitoring bodies to advocate for reforms. […]
Mexico’s Immigration Policies and Human Rights – Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 26
In this critical examination of Mexico’s history of immigration control, authors Flynn and Ortiz-Gonzalez demonstrate the country’s use of euphemistic language to reframe coercive practices as humanitarian ones, concealing the persistence of punitive migration enforcement and masking its on-going role as a surrogate enforcer of U.S migration control.
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Kazakhstan’s Treatment of Migrant Workers Scrutinised by the UN Human Rights Committee
Central Asia’s most prosperous state, Kazakhstan attracts a large number of migrant workers from surrounding countries, mainly Uzbekistan, Russia, and Tajikistan. While authorities note the need for skilled migrants to join the country’s workforce as part of the country’s Migration Policy Concept 2023-2027, Central Asian migrants–commonly employed as low-wage labourers–have often been the focus of widespread migrant raids for arrest, detention, and deportation. In recent submissions to the UN Human Rights Committee, the GDP and partner ILI brought critical attention to the country’s treatment of foreigners, prompting the committee to issue important recommendations. […]
Deportations to Eswatini Reflect Unprecedented Expansion of U.S Detention Regime
The Trump administration’s recent deportation of five migrants to the southern African country of Eswatini is the latest in the country’s unprecedented expansion of its immigration enforcement system. This has included growing numbers of migrant raids and arrests, massive injections of funding for Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), record numbers of detentions, and a proliferating range of overseas targets for “third-country deportations”–including, most recently, the tiny island nation of Palau. […]
Oman: Submission to the Universal Periodic Review
Despite the introduction of significant new legislation (including the 2023 Labour Law) since Oman’s third periodic review by the UPR Working Group, concerning protection gaps still remain–leaving vulnerable groups, particularly migrant domestic workers, at continued risk of detention and deportation.
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Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Since late June, Iran has expelled more than half a million Afghan refugees–coinciding with the country’s brief war with Israel. “We urge the Special Rapporteur not to overlook the plight of the millions of undocumented Afghan refugees in the country, whose plight often gets overlooked amidst the surge of conflicts, tragedies, and humanitarian crises afflicting the greater Middle East today.” […]
