The Global Detention Project (GDP) is pleased to provide this submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment in response to her call for input[1] to inform her upcoming report on Ukraine. This submission provides an overview of concerns regarding immigration detention in Ukraine with a […]
Ukraine
Russia: Immigration Detainees Amongst Foreign Migrants Targeted for Military Recruitment
In an effort to reach recruitment targets for its war in Ukraine, Russia has been attempting to coerce or force foreign migrants to fight. Authorities and private military companies have attempted to enlist foreigners in migration offices, workplaces, prisons, worker dormitories, and mosques. According to several reports, immigration detainees have also been targeted for enlistment. […]
Immigration Detention amidst War: The Case of Ukraine’s Volyn Detention Centre
In early March, shortly into Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Global Detention Project (GDP) began receiving email messages and videos from individuals claiming to know people who remained trapped in an immigration detention centre inside Ukraine, even as the war approached. … […]
Joint Submission to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Preparation for its Visit to Poland
The submission highlights concerns regarding Poland’s discriminatory detention practices of non-Ukrainian refugees, inhuman and degrading conditions in “Guarded Centres for Foreigners,” abuses of non-citizens on the border with Belarus, and the country’s increasing detention of children for migration purposes. […]
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. […]
THE UKRAINE CRISIS Double Standards: Has Europe’s Response to Refugees Changed?
Global Detention Project, 2 March 2022 During the 2015 refugee “crisis,” the EU called for detaining arriving refugees for up to 18 months. Not so today in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The reasons for this difference point to an intractable challenge in Europe’s ability to embrace the international refugee protection regime. […]
Ukraine Immigration Detention Data Profile (2020)
Ukraine Detention Data (2020) The latest detention-related data from Ukraine, including immigration and detention-related statistics, domestic laws and policies, international law, and institutional indicators. View the Ukraine Detention Data Profile Related Reading: Ukraine: Country Page Ukraine: Detention Centres Report (2012): Immigration Detention in Ukraine […]
Ukraine: Covid-19 and Detention
According to information submitted to the GDP by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ukraine, the number of newly detained migrants in the country has decreased during the pandemic. In Zakarpattia Oblast, those who have been apprehended while entering the country during the crisis have been placed in Border Guard […]
Ukraine: Covid-19 and Detention
According to information provided to the Global Detention Project (GDP) by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG), the Ukrainian government is currently preparing to release inmates from prisons across Ukraine in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. Together with the Ministry of Justice, KHPG has prepared two bills on amnesty and […]
Ukraine: Covid-19 and Detention
While calls have been circulated urging authorities to take precautionary steps to protect prisoners, the GDP is not aware of such calls being made with regards to immigration detainees. On 24 March, 100 Ukrainian and European NGOs issued a statement urging Russian authorities to take necessary steps to protect prisoners confined in the Donbas and […]
