During a recent review of Senegal’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers, the Committee on Migrant Workers noted a series of persistent challenges that migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers face in the country. Reflecting several recommendations that the Global Detention Project (GDP) made in its submission to the Committee in advance of the June 2024 review, the CMW expressed concerns about the treatment of men, women, and children who are detained while transiting the country, as well as Senegal’s collaboration with European Union agencies aimed at blocking migrants.
Among the recommendations issued by the Committee in its Concluding Observations that echoed points highlighted in the GDP’s submission, were:
- The need to improve individual complaints procedures and judicial remedies for migrants who have suffered labour-related abuses or mistreatment during immigration procedures as well as to implement better training to sensitise the full array of officials who work with migrants, with a particular emphasis on training that focuses on the rights and responsibilities established in the Convention.
- The need to reform detention procedures to ensure that such measures are imposed only as a last resort and when proven to be necessary, as well as to ensure respect for the non-refoulement principle.
- The need to improve transparency in immigration procedures, including by collecting and making available data and information. The Committee notably expressed “regret” over “the absence of qualitative and quantitative data on the number of migrants or candidates for migration employed by these agencies, as well as on the effectiveness of the legislative measures adopted and on the scale of labour inspections to supervise the practices of recruitment agencies.”
- The need to provide more clarity and transparency with respect to border controls, including joint collaborations with European authorities, and to publicise the details of agreements the country has made with other countries in effecting controls.
- The Committee also expressed particular concern regarding Senegal’s lack of efforts to implement reforms of its laws to decriminalise irregular migration, which the GDP noted in its submission to the Committee dated back several years, including the 2019 recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Committee. The CMW noted that while Senegal has stated that it is working on this issue, “the law has not yet been revised and cases of detention for irregular stay are reported. The Committee is also concerned about the lack of available data on the number of migrants in detention in Senegal, disaggregated by migration status, gender, age and other grounds of discrimination.”
