Immigration Detention amidst War: The Case of Ukraine’s Volyn Detention Centre A Global Detention Project Special Report 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 […]
Detention Blog
27 April 2022 – Denmark
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 […]
![Police Officers Walk the Danish-German Border (Claus Fisker/Scanpix Denmark,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/4GJ6CIA5EFISBP4LWUJDOFPFWI.jpeg)
22 April 2022 – Rwanda
Despite having a much-criticised track record concerning its treatment of refugees, Rwanda has signed deals with both the United Kingdom and Denmark that involve receiving deported asylum seekers and irregular migrants from both the countries for processing and potential permanent relocation. In mid-April, Rwanda and the UK finalised an “economic development partnership” whose centrepiece is […]
![Outside of the Gashora Transit Centre (Sally Hayden,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/etm_gashoraa.jpeg)
16 April 2022 – United Kingdom
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on 14 April that “from today, anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda. Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead.” The UK claims that the […]
![UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Vincent Biruta sign an agreement in Kigali on 14 April 2022 (Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/rwandaukjpg.jpeg)
12 April 2022 – Colombia
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 […]
![A Group of Refugees and Migrants Walks Towards the Village of Canaan in south Panama After Crossing the Darien Gap (Nicolo Filippo Rosso, UNHCR,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/DARIEN_GAP.jpeg)
31 March 2022 – Spain
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 […]
![Entrance of the Zapadores de València (M. Rodriguez,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/cie-zapadores.jpeg)
18 February 2022 – Libya
The UN reported in January that there were more than 12,000 people being detained in 27 prisons and detention facilities across Libya, often in “inhumane conditions in facilities controlled by armed groups or ‘secret facilities.’” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that many of these detainees were being arbitrarily detained after the country undertook security operations […]
09 February 2022 – Trinidad and Tobago
On 5 February 2022, the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard opened fire on a boat carrying some 40 people fleeing Venezuela, wounding a woman and killing her nine-month-old baby. The country’s coast guard stated its personnel had opened fire in “self-defence” to prevent being rammed by the boat. Human rights activists as well as the […]
![Trindad and Tobago Coastguard Searching a Vessel During a Patrol in 2011 (Andrea De Silva, Reuters,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/2011-09-10T120000Z_1891965215_GM1E79B05XY01_RTRMADP_3_TRINIDAD.jpeg)
30 January 2022 – Poland
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, […]
![Wall Being Constructed on the Border Near the Polish Village of Tołcze (Wojtek Radwanski, AFP, Getty Images,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/WALL_POLAND.jpeg)
25 January 2022 – Yemen
On 21 January, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike in Yemen struck a detention centre in the Sa’ad province under the control of rebel Houthi forces, killing at least 82 people and injuring 266 others. Médecins Sans Frontières reported that the al-Gumhourriyeh hospital in Sa’da had taken in around 200 wounded but that there were “many […]
![Image of the Destroyed Detention Centre in Sa'da Taken on 22 January 2022 (Ansarullah Media via AFP,](https://globaldetentionproject.org:3000/api/gdpUploadFiles/sources/download/ezgif-7-f1539ab3b8.jpeg)