On Monday 6 December, the London-based Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) released a report containing proposals for UK asylum reform. Titled Stopping the Crossings: How Britain can take back control of its immigration and asylum system, the report is an unambiguous attempt to spur a “radical policy shift and decisive action” to cut the number […]
Australia
Immigration Detention in Australia: Turning Arbitrary Detention into a Global Brand
Australia’s migration detention system is uniquely severe, arbitrary, and punitive. It includes a range of extreme and controversial policies–mandatory, indefinite, offshore, fully privatised detention–which are given blanket legal cover, are vigorously defended in the face of growing global opprobrium, and are spreading to countries near and far. […]

Statement by Abdul Aziz Muhamat* at the launch of the UN Committee on Migrant Workers’ General Comment No. 5 (2021) on migrants’ right to liberty
Statement by Abdul Aziz Muhamat at the launch event for the UN Committee on Migrant Workers’ General Comment No. 5 (2021) on migrants’ rights to liberty, freedom from arbitrary detention and their connection with other human rights by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
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UK: Plans to Replicate Australia’s Maligned Offshore Detention Regime Ignore a Long History of Failure and Suffering
Earlier this month, leaks revealed that the UK government has considered plans to send asylum seekers to offshore “processing” facilities stretching from Europe to North Africa to Asia, including in Moldova, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, and even Ascension Island and St Helena. According to the Guardian, which obtained the documents, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and […]

Australia Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Australia Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Australia, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Australia Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Australia: Country Page UK: Plans to Replicate Australia’s Maligned Offshore Detention Regime Ignore a Long History of Failure and Suffering Staff Publications: Private […]

Global Detention Project Annual Report 2019
The year 2019 marked the final year of the GDP’s first Strategic Plan. In this Annual Report, we discuss in detail how our strategy has shaped our activities and led us to become more engaged with activists, practitioners, policy-makers, scholars, and—critically—detainees and their families. […]

Private Prison Labour: Paradox or Possibility?
Private Prison Labour: Paradox or Possibility? Evaluating Modern-Day Systems and Establishing a Model Framework Through the Lens of the Forced Labour Convention. UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence , 8 (2) , Article 4. Overcrowding, deteriorating conditions, ever-increasing costs, recidivism. These are the terms that come to mind when thinking of the world’s punitive justice systems. Ostensibly, […]
Putting Immigration Detention in Interdisciplinary Perspective
What can we learn from the interdisciplinary study of immigration detention regimes? Michael Flynn explains in this essay for Oxford University’s “Border Criminologies” research network. […]

Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR): Australia
Global Detention Project Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) 61st Session (29 May – 23 June 2017) Geneva, May 2017 Issues related to immigration detention The Global Detention Project (GDP) welcomes the opportunity to provide information relevant to the Consideration of the fifth periodic report of Australia (due […]

Statement to the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries Panel on “PMSCs in places of deprivation of liberty and their impact on human rights”
Statement to the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries Panel on “PMSCs in places of deprivation of liberty and their impact on human rights” Michael Flynn, Global Detention Project 27 April 2017 I am the Director of the Global Detention Project, a research center based in Geneva that documents the use of detention […]
