OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS
Harm Reduction in Immigration Detention
It seems to be an inexorable quality of immigration detention that it causes the individual to experience pain or injury. From a human rights perspective, is it possible to talk about “best practices”? This GDP Special Report, commissioned by the Norwegian Red Cross, systematically compares conditions and operations at detention centres in several European countries to identify practices that may be used to develop “harm reducing” strategies in detention. After the recent launch of the report in Oslo, the Norwegian Red Cross issued a statement urging authorities to reform the country’s immigration detention system.
Read “Harm Reduction in Immigration Detention”
Joint Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Qatar
Foreigners account for nearly 90 percent of Qatar’s 2.2 million population, and thousands—including pregnant women and their children—have been detained in recent years, sometimes for periods lasting more than a year and in conditions that the U.S. State Department has reported do not meet international standards. In this submission, the GDP and Migrant-Rights.org identify concerns regarding the provision of safeguards for detainees, access to legal assistance and remedies, and inadequate information about basic detention statistics. Migrant-Rights.org attended the CERD session in Geneva in November to address the concerns raised in the submission.
Read the Full Submission to the UN CERD
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
NGO Briefing on Social Media, Human Rights, and Migration
On 15 November, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and the GDP held a briefing at Quaker House on the role that social media and other new digital technologies play in migration journeys, with a special emphasis on their use in the context of detention and migration control in North Africa and the Mediterranean. The event served as a public launch of the GDP’s new special series “Physical Fences and Digital Divides” and included a discussion by investigative journalist Tom Rollins on the research behind the series, including his on-the-ground reporting in Egypt and Sicily exploring the diverse ways that migrants and asylum seekers use social media.
Read “Physical Fences and Digital Divides”
Commentary on the Global Compact’s Objective 21: Returns, Readmission, Reintegration
In December, UN Member States will meet in Morocco to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. As part of a Refugee Law Initiative blog series assessing the final draft of the GCM, GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher examines the Compact’s Objective 21, concerning cooperation in facilitating safe and dignified return and readmission, as well as sustainable reintegration. Read the full article here.
Infectious Disease: Stigmatization of Refugees and Vulnerable Migrants
The GDP’s Michael Flynn was an invited participant at a workshop hosted by the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the Geneva Press Club entitled “Infectious Disease: Stigmatization of Refugees and Vulnerable Migrants.” The event, which took place on 27 November, explored the impact of stigma on the opportunities and protections offered to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and identified areas of policy development, with a special emphasis on international organisations. The workshop is part of the Leir Institute’s programme on “Migration Crisis and State Fragility.”
Workshop: MSF Work in Detention Settings
On 22 November, Researcher Izabella Majcher participated in a workshop exploring Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) role in detention settings, which took place in Rome. Majcher’s presentation examined the international human rights framework governing immigration detention, and highlighted instances of these standards being violated.
GDP ON THE RECORD
- “It’s Great To Get Kids Off Nauru, But Detention Centres in Australia Are Like Prisons,” N. Chemali, The Guardian, 31 October 2018.
- “The Rise and Rise of Mandatory Immigration Detention,” D. Ghezalbash, in: Protecting Migrant Children: In Search of Best Practice, M. Crock and L.B. Benson (eds.), 2018.
- “Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Discusses Situation in Qatar, Honduras and Iraq with Civil Society,” United Nations Office at Geneva, 27 November 2018.
- “Libia, ecco dove la guardia costiera libica rispedisce i profughi “soccorsi [Libya, Here’s Where the Libyan Coastguard Sends “Rescued” Migrants]” A. Puglia, Vita, November 2018.
- “For strengt på utlendingsinternatet på Trandum [Trandum’s Immigration Regime is Too Strict],” Utrop, 1 November 2018.
- “Making Immigration Detention Less Harmful,” Canada OPCAT Project, 1 November 2018.
- “Social Harm in the Danish Asylum System,” Refugees.dk, 2 November 2018.
- “GCM Commentary: Objective 21: Cooperate in Facilitating Safe and Dignified Return and Readmission, As Well As Sustainable Reintegration,” I. Majcher, Refugee Law Initiative, 1 November 2018.
- “‘When I Was In The Boat I Thought I Was Already Dead’: Human Trafficking and Exploitation of In-Transit Migrants in Libya,” R.R. Manzano, in: Porous Borders, Invisible Boundaries? Ethnographic Perspectives on the Vicissitudes of Contemporary Migration, H. Howell et al (eds.), 2018.
- “ICEBOX: The Logistics of Detention,” S. Ramos, Footprint: Delft Architecture Theory Journal, (23), 2018.
- “Under ICE: The ‘Bed Quota’ And Political Rhetoric in American Immigrant Detention,” A. Sanudo-Kretzmann, Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice, (113), 2018.
- “Legal Pluralism in the European Regulation of Border Control: Disassembling, Diffusing, and Legalizing the Power to Exclude,” G. Cornelisse, in: Research Handbook on Legal Pluralism and EU Law, G. Davies and M. Avbelj (eds.), 2018.
- “The Legal Construction of Central American Unworthiness: An Examination of Human Rights in U.S. Immigration Law,” A. Raza, University of California, 2018.
- “Illegibility in the Migration Regime,” T. Eule et al, in: Migrants Before the Law: Contested Migration Control in Europe, T. Eule et al (eds.), 2018.
- “The Effect of Cultural Awareness Training on Staff in Intergovernmental Service Agreement Facilities,” S.A. Coffman, Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection, 2018.
