In early June, France’s independent detention monitoring agency, the Contrôleur Général des lieux de Privation de Liberté (CGPL), released a report on its work, which heavily criticised operations at the country’s immigration detention centres (centres de rétention administrative or CRA), including highlighting critical problems with respect to COVID-19 measures. The CGPL report found that the […]
European Union
Immigration detention In Netherlands ( from report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture 2022 visit to Netherlands)
1. Preliminary remarks ; (Read full CPT report) 49. In the course of the visit, the delegation visited all three closed immigration detention facilities in the Netherlands: it carried out follow-up visits to Rotterdam43 and Schiphol Detention Centres (DCs), and it conducted a first-time visit to the Closed Family Facility (Gesloten Gezinsvoorziening – GGV) at […]
Immigration detention in Latvia (from report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture 2022 visit to Latvia)
a. preliminary remarks; (Read full CPT report) 28. One of the objectives of the 2022 visit was to examine the situation of foreign nationalsdetained under aliens legislation. For this purpose, the delegation visited the country’s two dedicateddetention facilities for foreign nationals, namely Daugavpils Immigration Detention Centre and Mucenieki Immigration Detention Centre.12 Both centres are managed […]
TURKEY: Joint Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
As Turkey has stepped up immigration controls there have been increasing reports of human rights abuses in detention centres and in other sites along its borders. Women have been subjected to abuses and gender-specific violations, including reports of rape of refugee women in some removal centres as well as humiliating strip searches. […]
Denmark: Covid-19 and Detention
Denmark has entered talks with Rwanda to establish a deal similar to the controversial one Rwanda made with the United Kingdom in mid-April concerning the transfer of asylum seekers to the country. Denmark’s immigration minister said that the deal would “ensure a more dignified approach than the criminal network of human traffickers that characterises migration […]
Colombia: Covid-19 and Detention
Colombia hosts the largest number of Venezuelans outside Venezuela. According to the World Food Programme, there are some 1.8 million Venezuelans residing in Colombia and another 500,000 are expected to arrive in the coming months. By 2020, according to UNHCR, Colombia had 957 refugees, 19,933 asylum seekers, 8,252,788 internally displaced persons, and 1,729,537 Venezuelans “displaced […]
Foreign nationals held under aliens’ legislation (from report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture 2022 visit to Poland)
1. Preliminary remarks; (Read full CPT report) 25. The border crisis between the European Union and Belarus, which had begun in the summer of 2021, saw thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East, trying to enter the European Union through Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland from neighbouring Belarus. In response to an unprecedented increase in […]
Spain: Covid-19 and Detention
Spain’s detention and removal operations have begun to return to normal operations after major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had spurred the country to temporarily close all its detention centres shortly after onset of the pandemic in early 2020. Despite this, COVID continues to wreak havoc in detention centres even as the country […]
A Tale of Two Refugee Crises
When the 2015 refugee “crisis” drove more than a million Syrians towards Europe, the EU justified detaining these refugees for up to 18 months. Less than two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more than one million people have already fled into neighbouring countries—but don’t expect Brussels to call for their detention this time. […]
Poland: Covid-19 and Detention
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as of January 2022 there were 1,675 people in detention centres across the country (with 972 persons in detention centres for families and the rest in those for men). The Red Cross reported that they had distributed hygiene kits, including personal protective equipment, […]
