OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS
Immigration Detention in Turkey: A Serial Human Rights Abuser and Europe’s Refugee Gatekeeper
Turkey has long served as Europe’s reluctant—if opportunistic—gatekeeper for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants from across the Near East and Asia. This role was dramatically put on display in the wake of the refugee “crisis” in 2015 and remains an important flashpoint in the country’s relations with the European Union, as was underscored during the country’s military incursions into Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria in late 2019. The 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal was the culmination of years of EU efforts to encourage and finance Turkey’s migration control efforts, including by boosting its detention capacity. Read the full report.
Immigration Detention in Italy: Complicit in Grave Human Rights Abuses?
Italy has been an aggressive proponent of draconian migration control practices, spurring accusations that it has been complicit in human rights violations. It has blocked ports to vessels carrying refugees, prosecuted people seeking to save lives at sea, and supported the interdiction efforts of various Libyan armed factions. In 2018, Italy amended its immigration legislation, doubling the maximum length of detention in pre-removal centres and creating a new legal ground for the detention of asylum seekers. Meanwhile, non-citizens continue to be de facto detained in Italy’s controversial “hotspots,” through which more than 40,000 people passed in 2017. Read the full report.
OUR LATEST SUBMISSIONS
- GDP and MYLA Joint Submission to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture: North Macedonia
- GDP and Centre for Peace Studies Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review: Croatia
- GDP and Foundation for Access to Rights Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review: Bulgaria
- GDP and Migrant-Rights.org Joint Submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Qatar
- GDP Submission to the Universal Periodic Review: Libya
- GDP Submission to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture: Ireland
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
Twentieth Anniversary of the Mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
On 12-13 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (SRHRM) will hold an event in Mexico commemorating the mandate’s 20 years of work protecting the human rights of migrants. The event, which will take place at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, will include a presentation by the GDP on ideas for building a rights-based approach for migration policy.
“Don’t Call the Essex 39 a ‘Tragedy’”
When news broke that 39 people had been found dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, South East England, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the world was “shocked by this tragedy.” But is this appalling loss of life best described as a “tragedy”? In an article for the New Internationalist, GDP Research Fellow Jun Pang argues not. “The conditions that produced these 39 deaths emerge from the same set of policies that deny asylum, justify indefinite immigration detention, charter deportation flights, and restrict migrants’ access to fundamental rights.” Read the full article.
GDP ON THE RECORD
- “Migrants Describe Being Tortured and Raped on Perilous Journey to Libya,” CNN, October 2019.
- “Manconi: “Carcere ambiente patogeno, scatena smarrimento e suicidi” [Manconi: “Pathogenic environment in prison, triggers loss and suicide”],” Estense.com, October 2019.
- “Internazionale a Ferrara: un nome, una garanzia [Internazionale a Ferrara: A Name, A Guarantee],” Mar Dei Sargassi, October 2019.
- “Protección de los Apátridas Contra la Detención Arbitraria [Protection of Stateless Persons against Arbitrary Detention],” European Network on Statelessness, October 2019.
- “The Lives Behind the Stereotypes: The Reality of Seeking Asylum in the UK,” Immigration Advice Service, October 2019.
- “All at Sea: Europe’s Crisis of Solidarity on Migration,” S. Fine, European Council on Foreign Relations, October 2019.
- “The Security Implications of Human Trafficking,” J. Bigio and R. Vogelstein, Council on Foreign Relations, October 2019.
- “Prison Conditions in Afghanistan: A Commentary,” ARC Foundation, October 2019.
- “The Immigration Industrial Complex: A Global Perspective on ‘Unfree Labour’ in Immigration Detention,” K. Bales, Futures of Work, (9), September 2019.
- “Sacrificing Women and Immigrants on the Altar of Regressive Politics,” D.F. Haynes, Human Rights Quarterly, (41(1)), October 2019.
- Crimmigration in Australia: Law, Politics and Society, P. Billings (Springer 2019).
- “The Asylum-Seeking Process: An American Tradition,” G.R. Musolf, Conflict and Forced Migration, (51), October 2019.
- “Canada’s Detention of Children in Immigration Holding Centres,” T.D. Ward and D. Raphael, International Journal of Children’s Rights, (27), 2019.
- “Not All Your Neighbors Are Free: Community Building with Incarcerated Folks in San Luis Obispo,” G. Bissa, Sprinkle: An Undergraduate Journal of Feminist and Queer Studies, (12), 2019.
