Immigration Detention in Malta (2019 Report): Malta’s heavy-handed response to irregular maritime arrivals—including refusing to allow rescue ships to dock and assisting Libyan authorities in intercepting asylum boats—has placed the country at the centre of a bitter EU-wide debate concerning search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. This restrictive approach is also reflected in its detention […]
RLI 4th Annual Conference: Rethinking the “Regional” in Refugee Law and Policy
RLI 4th Annual Conference: Rethinking the “Regional” in Refugee Law and Policy London, 3-5 June 2019 On 3-5 June, GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher participated in the 4th Annual Conference of the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI), whose theme this year was “Rethinking the ‘Regional’ in Refugee Law and Policy.” Majcher presented her work on the […]
Immigration Detention in Estonia: Better Conditions, Stricter Regime
Immigration Detention in Estonia (2019 Report): Largely shielded from immigration pressures due to its geography, Estonia has one of the lowest migrant-apprehension rates in the European Union and received the fewest asylum applications in 2018. Nevertheless, public discourse about migrants and foreigners is heavily marked by fear and animosity. Estonia operates one dedicated immigration detention centre, […]
NEWSLETTER: May 2019
OUR LATEST PUBLICATIONS Immigration Detention in the Baltics: A Regional View The three Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were largely shielded from the impact of Europe’s “refugee crisis.” However, a cursory review of their detention policies, border control practices, and public discourses concerning immigration would seem to tell a different story: New fences are being built on the […]
The Recast of the EU Returns Directive: Human Rights Lost Again?
In the EU response to the so-called refugee crisis, it was the return policy, rather than refugee protection, that received most prominence. The European Commission (EC) argued that promoting the effectiveness of returns would help solve the “crisis,” – and this “effectiveness” related to the number of returns, rather than compliance with fundamental rights. Although […]
Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants
The Global Detention Project (GDP) welcomes the opportunity to provide this input to the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants ahead of his forthcoming report to the 74th session of the General Assembly on “good practices or initiatives of gender-responsive migration legislation, policies and practices.” […]
Open NGO Letter to all Permanent Missions to the UN in Geneva and New York
Earlier this month, it came to light that due to delays in payments from UN member states and travel budget cuts for UN representatives, six of the UN human rights treaty bodies are facing severe and unexpected budget cuts that are likely to result in the cancellation of the reviews of states parties scheduled for […]
Immigration Detention in Latvia: Giving “Accommodation” a Whole New Meaning
Immigration Detention in Latvia (2019 Report): Although Latvia does not experience significant migratory pressures, the number of immigration detainees and the average length of detention have steadily increased. In 2017, the country opened a second detention facility, misleadingly called an “accommodation centre.” The law provides for the detention of non-citizens for up to 10 days without […]
Immigration Detention in Lithuania: Detention and Denial Amidst Extreme Population Decline
Immigration Detention in Lithuania (2019 Report): Asylum applications in Lithuania have decreased significantly in the last few years even as entry refusal rates at the country’s borders have skyrocketed, increasing by some 80 percent since 2013. The country’s restrictive asylum legislation, which provides for the detention of asylum seekers, has received criticism from several UN human […]
UN Committee on Migrant Workers: Draft General Comment No. 5
In April, the GDP submitted information to the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families (CMW) following a call for stakeholders to provide inputs on a detailed questionnaire to be used in drafting General Comment No.5 on Migrants’ Rights to Liberty and Freedom from Arbitrary Detention. The CMW […]
