In a joint submission with Lawyers for Human Rights, the GDP has submitted information to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) addressing issues related to immigration detention in Botswana. Amongst various recommendations, the GDP and LHR urge CERD to call on Botswana to ensure that child migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are not detained; to end the practice of arbitrary detention; and to reform national legislation that is discriminatory in content, language, and application. […]
Botswana
Botswana: Covid-19 and Detention
Following its recent visit to Botswana, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) expressed serious concerns regarding the country’s punitive approach towards refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. Having visited two detention sites, the Working Group urged Botswanan authorities to revise its policies to ensure that immigration detention is used as an exception, for the […]
Botswana: Covid-19 and Detention
In June 2022, the Global Detention Project (GDP) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) issued a joint-submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in preparation for its mission to Botswana from 4-15 July 2022 concerning issues related to immigration detention in Botswana. The submission highlights the gaps in the country’s national refugee legislation, lack […]
BOTSWANA: Submission to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Botswana has both administrative migration-related detention measures, including for the detention of refugees, as well as criminal penalties that can include lengthy imprisonment for migration offenses. These measures violate norms promoted by the Working Group, which says that migration infractions must not be subject to criminal penalties and there should be a prohibition on the detention of refugees, asylum seekers, and children. […]
Botswana Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Botswana Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Botswana, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Botswana Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Botswana: Country Page Botswana: COVID-19 Updates Botswana: International Law […]
Botswana: Covid-19 and Detention
Botswana, which has long operated a “Centre for Illegal Migrants” at Francistown near the border with Zimbabwe and a refugee camp in Dukwi, has struggled in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, repeatedly shutting down various regions of the country as cases have spread. While there appears to be little public information about whether measures […]
Botswana Detention Profile (2009)
Botswana has traditionally been considered a welcoming country for immigrants, attracting skilled workers from neighbouring countries. However, since the early 2000s, there have been growing tensions as the number of immigrants from Zimbabwe has risen precipitously. By 2004, the country was deporting some 2,500 irregular Zimbabweans per month. The government also began implementing harsher legal […]
