Facing increasing pressures on its shared border with Northern Ireland and sharply rising asylum requests, Ireland has ramped up border controls and deportations. Growing Crackdown on Immigration in Ireland and Northern Ireland Recent reports reveal increasing immigration restrictions in Ireland, following a spike in irregular arrivals from the UK via Northern Ireland. According to the […]
European Union
Croatia: Brutality on the Border, Expanding Detention Regime
Croatia’s brutal treatment and pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina has been widely documented for several years, with the most recent reports revealing systematic destruction of migrants’ belongings, including cell phones and identity papers. The country has also expanded its immigration enforcement infrastructure with the opening in late 2023 of a […]
Türkiye: Growing International Pressure to End EU-Financed Harmful and Arbitrary Immigration Detention Practices
A consortium of European media outlets working in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports have released a series of reports revealing the abuses refugees and other migrants face in EU-financed detention centres in Türkiye. The reports follow on numerous recommendations issued by UN human rights bodies earlier this year, which included inputs from the Global Detention Project […]
Lithuania’s Border Guard Provides Limited Responses to Detention Information Requests
As part of its collaboration with the Global Detention Project-sponsored Global Immigration Detention Observatory initiative, the Vilnius-based Human Rights Monitoring Institute, issued an information request to Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service concerning key statistics and practices related to the arrest and detention of migrants and asylum seekers. Although the border guard promptly responded to the […]
Poland: Joint Submission to the 76th Session of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Issues Related to Refugee and Migrants Rights, Immigration Enforcement and Detention CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. DETENTION CONTEXT III. CONCERNS & RECOMMENDATIONS RELATED TO CONVENTION PROVISIONS I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Association for Legal Intervention (Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej, or SIP) is a Warsaw-based civil society organisation that promotes the legal equality of all people, with a particular focus on refugees and […]
Tunisia: Detention and “Desert Dumping” of Sub-Saharan Refugees
With financial support from the European Union, Tunisia is systematically undertaking anti-migrant and racially motivated operations, including “desert dumps” and unlawful arbitrary expulsions of migrants and refugees to remote areas near Libya and Algeria, according to recent reports. Violence Against Migrants and Arrests of Human Rights Defenders The growing number of reports revealing abuses suffered […]
Slovakia: Detention Increases as Country Continues Migrant and Asylum Crackdown
Slovakia has been among the more outspoken opponents of the EU Migration Pact, adopted in April 2024, with the country’s new populist Prime Minister Robert Fico stating that Brussels “cannot order a country that it must accept, in the Slovak case, up to 300 migrants you know nothing about, or pay 20,000 euros for each […]
Lithuania: Reports of Arbitrary Detention, Physical Abuse, and Pushbacks
Recent reports highlight ongoing abuses of migrants and asylum seekers by Lithuanian border guards, including arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and pushbacks into Belarus. The Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI), a GDP partner in Lithuania, recently documented three cases involving unlawful restrictions of migrants’ liberty, abuses by Lithuanian authorities, and pushbacks to Belarus. According to their report, […]
Senegal: Blocking the West African Migration Route
The West African migration route leading to Spain’s Canary Islands saw a major spike in traffic in 2023, increasing by 161 percent compared to 2022, according to the European Union border agency, Frontex. As most of these crossings originate in Senegal and involve mainly young migrants, many under the age of 18, the country’s efforts […]
FRANCE: New Immigration Law Ends Detention of Children but Eases Deportation
A controversial new immigration law has come into force in France that prohibits detention of children while at the same time limiting access to social assistance for migrants and facilitating removal procedures. […]
