OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS Physical Fences and Digital Divides: Final Report of the Global Detention Project Special Investigation into the Uses of Electronic Media in Today’s Migration Journeys Smartphones, social media platforms, and other tech tools are today “migrant essentials” that can assist people in making life-saving decisions and bring public attention to abuses that migrants and […]
Publications & Events
The Debate over Alternatives to Immigration Detention of Children
This essay addresses challenging questions surrounding efforts to promote “alternatives to immigration detention” in the context of children in administrative removal proceedings. Although there are important provisions in international law that provide protections for children in these procedures and arguably limit states’ resort to detention, there is no provision that expressly forbids the immigration detention […]
Private Prison Labour: Paradox or Possibility?
Private Prison Labour: Paradox or Possibility? Evaluating Modern-Day Systems and Establishing a Model Framework Through the Lens of the Forced Labour Convention. UCL Journal of Law and Jurisprudence , 8 (2) , Article 4. Overcrowding, deteriorating conditions, ever-increasing costs, recidivism. These are the terms that come to mind when thinking of the world’s punitive justice systems. Ostensibly, […]
Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty: States Must End Immigration Detention of Children and Families
On 20 November, the UN Independent Expert on Children Deprived of Liberty, Manfred Nowak, released the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty. This study is the result of years of work by Nowak, with assistance provided by numerous external advisers and experts, including GDP staff members, evaluating all forms of deprivation of liberty of […]
Immigration Detention under the Global Compacts in the Light of Refugee and Human Rights Law Standards
In an article for International Migration, GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher explores how immigration detention is addressed in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), and investigates the potential implications of the compacts on existing legal framework regulating the use of immigration detention. While Objective 13 of […]
Immigration Detention in Romania: With a Little Help from the EU
To pave the way for Romania’s entrance into the Schengen area, the EU has helped finance the county’s efforts to boost border controls and restrict how many people it lets in. Nevertheless, Romania’s treatment of refugees and migrants arguably compares favourably to that of its Visegrad neighbours, like Hungary. Observers point to a number of concerns about conditions in Romania’s immigration detention facilities, including their prison-like regimes, lack of mechanisms to identify vulnerable persons, inadequate medical services, and insufficient provision of legal assistance. […]
The European Union Returns Directive and its Compatibility with International Human Rights Law
In her new book “The European Union Returns Directive and its Compatibility with International Human Rights Law: Analysis of Return Decision, Entry Ban, Detention, and Removal” (Brill, 2020), GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher undertakes a thorough human rights assessment of the EU Returns Directive. The overarching human rights framework, which circumscribes state prerogatives in the context […]
NEWSLETTER: The Convention on the Rights of the Child – Thirty Years On
Today marks 30 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The adoption of the convention marked a critical milestone in global efforts to ensure that the human rights of children are respected, including the rights of migrant and refugee children deprived of their liberty. At the heart […]
The Use of Private Military and Security Companies in Migrant Detention Centres
United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights Geneva, 25-27 November 2019 On 27 November, the GDP’s Michael Flynn will join a panel organised by the Working Group on the use of mercenaries to discuss the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in immigration detention, as part of the United Nations Forum on […]
Joint Submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Greece
Joint Submission to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Preparation for its Mission to Greece in December 2019 The Global Detention Project (GDP) and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) are pleased to provide the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) the following submission in preparation for its visit to Greece in December 2019. […]
