Detention Centres in the Global South: The Global Detention Project at the Refugee Law Initiative Conference (London 2018) On 18-19 July, Global Detention Project Executive Director Michael Flynn and Researcher Izabella Majcher participated in the third Refugee Law Initiative Annual Conference in London. Hosted by the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, the conference reflected on the apparent strengthening of anti-refugee feeling around the world and raised urgent questions about this trend’s present and future impact on refugee protection.
In his presentation, “A New Gulag Archipelago: Protecting the Rights of Refugees and Migrants Deprived of Their Liberty in the Detention Belt Emerging across the Global South,” GDP Executive Director Michael Flynn examined the growing trend for major destination countries to evade their obligations to refugees and non-citizens and the subsequent burgeoning of detention regimes on the periphery of the Global North. While this phenomenon represents a formidable challenge in refugee protection, he argued that this “crisis” has also given rise to unexpected opportunities in promoting the rights of detained migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, including notably at UN treaty bodies like the Committee on Migrant Workers.
More information about the conference is available here >
About the GDP
The Global Detention Project (GDP) is a non-profit organisation based in Geneva that promotes the human rights of people who have been detained for reasons related to their non-citizen status. Our mission is:
- To promote the human rights of detained migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers
- To ensure transparency in the treatment of immigration detainees
- To reinforce advocacy aimed at reforming detention systems
- To nurture policy-relevant scholarship on the causes and consequences of migration control policies
The GDP’s activities inlcude: (1) providing policy-makers, civil society actors, and human rights institutions with a source of accurate information and analysis about detention and other immigration control regimes, with a particular focus on the impact these policies have on the health, human rights, and well being of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; (2) developing and maintaining a measurable and regularly updated database that can be used to assess the evolution of detention practices, provide an evidentiary base for advocating reforms, and serve as a framework for comparative analysis; (3) working with academics and practitioners to develop policy relevant scholarship about detention systems; and (4) collaborating with advocacy organisations to document policies and practices.
