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 […]
European Union
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 […]
Trapped Between Borders: Tunisia’s Alarming Treatment of Sub-Saharan Migrants
Tunisia has come under renewed criticism from rights groups after authorities rounded up sub-Saharan migrants and asylum seekers and forcefully relocated them to a buffer zone between the Tunisian and Libyan border. Videos shared online show men, women, and children–some with injuries–stranded close to the sea, reportedly without any food or water. Surging Discrimination According […]
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Secrecy and Confusion Surrounding New Detention Centre for “Fake Asylum Seekers”
In 2022, the EU announced plans to fund a new detention unit within the grounds of a Temporary Reception Centre near Bosnia’s north-western border with Croatia. In recent months, however, significant confusion and controversy has emerged surrounding the centre. […]
Italy and the EU “Complicit” in Crimes Against Non-Nationals in Libya
The brutal treatment of refugees and migrants in Libya has been widely condemned and reported. Intercepted by the country’s coastguard and returned to Libyan “disembarkation zones,” non-nationals are placed in immigration detention facilities where conditions are inhuman. They face indefinite detention with frequent water and food shortages; overcrowding; physical mistreatment and torture; forced labour and […]
TURKEY: Joint Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
As Turkey has stepped up immigration controls there have been increasing reports of human rights abuses in detention centres and in other sites along its borders. Women have been subjected to abuses and gender-specific violations, including reports of rape of refugee women in some removal centres as well as humiliating strip searches. […]
A Tale of Two Refugee Crises
When the 2015 refugee “crisis” drove more than a million Syrians towards Europe, the EU justified detaining these refugees for up to 18 months. Less than two weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more than one million people have already fled into neighbouring countries—but don’t expect Brussels to call for their detention this time. […]
Oral Submission: Testimony on Lithuania’s Treatment of Migrants at the Border with Belarus at the UN Committee against Torture’s 72nd Session
The Human Rights Monitoring Institute and the Global Detention Project presented reports about mistreatment and disappearances of migrants and asylum seekers detained near the border with Belarus at the 72nd Session of the UN Committee against Torture. […]
Immigration Detention in Turkey: Trapped at the Crossroad Between Asia and Europe
With one of the world’s largest migration detention systems, Turkey has long served as Europe’s reluctant refugee gatekeeper. This role has repeatedly been put on display, including in the wake of the refugee “crisis” in 2015, which culminated in the adoption of the controversial EU-Turkey refugee deal; and, more recently, after the 2021 Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, which spurred Turkey to extend border walls and engage in often violent pushbacks of Afghan refugees. […]
