GLOBAL DETENTION PROJECT NEWSLETTER
MAY 2016
ANNUAL REPORT
In December 2015, the Global Detention Project completed its first fiscal year as an independent non-profit association after operating for nearly eight years as an academic project based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. This Annual Report details the origins and evolution of the GDP and its efforts to confront the expanding use of detention to control the movement of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Read more
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Public Presentation of the new GDP online Database
The GDP is pleased to announce that it will be co-hosting a parallel event at the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council at which we will present the GDP’s new website and online database. The event, titled “Tracking Detention Data Globally: An Introduction to the Global Detention Project Online Database and the Case of Australia,” will take place on 14 June at the United Nations in Geneva and be co-hosted by Franciscans International, Edmund Rice International and Destination Justice. The room and time TBC.
Human Rights Council Side Event on Corporate Responsibility in Response to the Global Refugee Crisis
The GDP will be a panellist at this side event at the UN Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday 16 June. Event hosts and participants include the Human Rights Law Centre and the No Business in Abuse campaign. The room and time TBC.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Can Inspection Produce Meaningful Change in Immigration Detention?
Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 12
By Hindpal Singh Bhui
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), a government-appointed independent human rights-based monitoring institution, is responsible for inspecting immigration detention centres in the UK. In this GDP Working Paper, a lead HMIP inspector discusses the nature and impact of the Inspectorate’s work. The author argues that in liberal-democratic societies there are two broad approaches to promoting human rights reforms and challenging abuses: working from the inside to achieve progress with the risk that principles may be compromised and good intentions confounded; or promoting change from the outside, which is more uncompromising but less influential, at least in the short-term. The author explores the “effectiveness” of detention inspection and whether inspection can be said to have promoted meaningful change. Read more
U.S. Immigration Detention Profile
The United States operates the world’s largest immigration detention system. On any given day, the country has some 30,000 people in administrative immigration detention at an estimated cost of nearly $150 a day. In 2016, the combined budget of enforcement agencies was $19 billion. The country’s sprawling detention estate counts on some 200 facilities, including privately operated detention facilities, local jails, juvenile detention centres, field offices, and euphemistically named “family residential centres.” The country has also supported the detention of migrants and asylum seekers in neighbouring countries. Read more
GDP ON THE RECORD
“Gormley: Canada, stop jailing innocent migrants. Just stop. It’s not hard.”
Ottawa Citizen, 16 May 2016
Global Forum on Migration and Development. The GDP’s Senior Researcher made a presentation on “Detention of Migrants as a Response to Global Migration: The Legal Framework and Beyond” at a Global Forum on Migration and Development – UN Committee on Migrant Workers panel discussion on the rights of migrants including children in the context of international migration organised by the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh and the Committee on Migrant Workers on 19 May in Geneva. Read more
“The Grim Conditions of Jordan’s Immigration Detention Camps. Blatant Human Rights Violations”
Global Research, 18 April 2016
“Arbitrary Detention of Women and Children for Immigration-related Purposes”
European Parliament Briefing, 2016
Immigration detention in Europe. The GDP participated in a Coordination Meeting on Migrant Detention Organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Regional Office for Europe on 27 May 2016 in Brussels.
