The Global Detention Project 2025 Annual Report chronicles a year of expanding research, advocacy, and global engagement amid rapidly evolving migration control regimes. From exposing abusive detention practices and opaque deportation arrangements to strengthening partnerships with UN bodies, civil society, and affected communities, the report captures growing momentum to challenge immigration detention and advance respect for migrants’, asylum seekers’, and refugees’ fundamental rights worldwide. […]
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: Detainees Decry Poor Conditions and Indefinite Detention in Welisara Detention Centre
In recent weeks, the Global Detention Project has received several testimonies from a group of people held in immigration detention in Sri Lanka, depicting troubling detention conditions and instances of indefinite immigration detention. The accounts of their treatment at the Welisara Detention Centre reflect wider concerns about the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers in the country, including the arbitrary detention of children and asylum seekers. […]
Rohingya Refugees Detained in Sri Lanka
In December, Sri Lankan authorities were praised for their quick and successful rescue of 104 Rohingya refugees, stranded at sea when their boat encountered mechanical difficulties. The GDP is concerned to learn, however, that soon after they were brought to dry land, the refugees were placed in two immigration detention facilities in Colombo–one of which […]
Sri Lanka Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Sri Lanka Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Sri Lanka, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Sri Lanka Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Sri Lanka: Country Page Sri Lanka: International Law Sri Lanka: COVID-19 Updates […]
Sri Lanka: Covid-19 and Detention
As of 28 September, Sri Lanka, with a population of 21.5 million, had detected only 3,360 cases of COVID-19. Although the country has been lauded for its containment of the virus, members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority have allegedly become stigmatised as carriers of the virus. There is also little information available concerning the impact […]
