GLOBAL DETENTION PROJECT NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ANNOUNCEMENT
On Friday 27 May, the Global Detention Project will give a presentation of its new website and online database. The event will take place in the conference room at 1 rue Varembé, Geneva, at 12:30. If you would like to attend, please RSVP at admin@globaldetentionprojec
NEW DETENTION PROFILES
Denmark
Denmark has introduced increasingly restrictive policies regarding foreigners. An amendment to the Aliens Act provides “special circumstances” for detaining asylum seekers, including the detention of asylum seekers who are part of “massive arrivals.” Other controversial measures include allowing police to seize the valuables of asylum seekers, the temporary postponement of the right to family reunification, new restrictions on the ability to obtain a permanent residence permit, and the shortening of the length of temporary residence permits.
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic has pursued restrictive and discriminatory immigration policies since the onset of the refugee crisis in early 2015, even though the country has not faced nearly the same pressures as its European neighbours. Although the number of immigration-related detained is not very high—reflecting its relatively low apprehension numbers—there are indications of increasing numbers of families with children being placed in detention without consideration of alternatives.
NEW GDP SUBMISSIONS TO HUMAN RIGHTS BODIES
UN Human Rights Committee: Thailand
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Bulgaria
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Slovakia
UN Human Rights Committee: Denmark
OTHER NEW PUBLICATIONS
Sovereign Discomfort: Can Liberal Norms Lead to Increasing Immigration Detention?
Many liberal democracies appear uncomfortable with public scrutiny of immigration detention, neglecting to release statistics, cloaking detention practices in misleading names, and limiting which activities they define as deprivation of liberty. Yet these same countries have labored to expand their detention activities and to encourage their neighbors to do the same, as we have witnessed with Europe’s relationship with Turkey. What explains this simultaneous reticence towards and embrace of immigration detention? In this chapter for the 2016 Springer volume Immigration Detention, Risk and Human Rights, the GDP’s Michael Flynn argues that one largely unrecognized factor influencing the evolution of immigration detention has been the promotion of key human rights norms, which has appeared to encourage some states to adopt new institutions dedicated to this practice while at the same time prompting them to shift the burden of global migration to countries on the periphery of the international system. Selections from the book are available online here.
GDP ON THE RECORD
Private Contractor Makes Millions Off GPS Trackers for Immigrants
By Eileen Townsend, Memphis Flyer
April 2016
Nearly 200 undocumented people in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, are forced to wear GPS tracking bracelets as a part of a controversial immigration program. These types of “alternatives to detention” are found across the United States and other countries. Interviewed for the story, a researcher at the Global Detention Project said: “There has been … an increase across the globe in using enhanced technology to ‘manage’ migration. … It runs the gamut from evasive and harsh practices such as ankle bracelets to things like exchanging databases across countries so that they can better identify people. This involves a lot of outsourcing [to private companies.] … One does have to wonder whether or not these practices are encouraged by companies that have something to gain.”
http://www.memphisflyer.com/me
Spare a Thought for Refugee Women and Children in Detention
By Helen Crewes, Huffington Post
29 March 2016
“In recognition of the use of immigration-related detention the Global Detention Project provides a source of accurate information about their use and other immigration control regimes. … This article will highlight recent research about refugee women and children in detention.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.u
The EU-Turkey Refugee Deal is Anything but Historic
Novara Wire
April 2016
“The arbitrary detention of refugees, some of whom have backgrounds of torture and abuse, will only stand to do further damage to those already traumatised. A report from the Global Detention Project on Greek detention centres between 2011 and 2014 described migrants lacking heating and hot water, sleeping on concrete floors, and having to resort to drinking out of toilets. It would be hard to believe that conditions would have improved with an extra 800,000 refugees to provide for.” http://wire.novaramedia.com/20
Detention of Migrants and Asylum-Seekers: The Challenge for Humanitarian Actors
By Ioanna Kotsioni (Victims of Torture Project Coordinator, Comprehensive care for migrants who have suffered torture and other forms of ill treatment, Médecins Sans Frontières, Greece)
Refugee Survey Quarterly
12 April 2016
http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/
LIBYA: Five Migrants Dead, 15 Injured After Detention Centre Escape
By Mark Micallef, Migrant Report
2 April 2016
http://migrantreport.org/five-
