Despite an unsuccessful legal challenge from Detention Action seeking the release of all immigration detainees at the High Court in March (see 5 April update), more than 700 detainees were released between 16 March and 21 April as the government responded to concerns about the spread of Covid-19 within immigration detention facilities. The organisation has […]
United Kingdom
United Kingdom: Covid-19 and Detention
The UK’s Home Affairs Select Committee has called on the government to investigate concerns that cramped conditions in asylum accommodation are putting people at risk of the virus. In particular, the Committee noted its concerns regarding reports of poor conditions in an asylum centre in West Yorkshire that reportedly breached measures to control the spread […]
United Kingdom: Covid-19 and Detention
As news emerged of a second confirmed case of Covid-19 within a UK Removal Centre, Alison Thewliss – chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention – urged the UK government to release immigration detainees. In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Thewliss wrote, “The confirmation of a new coronavirus case at Brook […]
United Kingdom: Covid-19 and Detention
Human rights organisations and legal bodies have repeatedly called on the UK Home office to release immigration detainees. While some 300 individuals were released from removal centres by the end of March, a legal filing seeking the release of all immigration detainees was blocked by the High Court. When the crisis first began to escalate […]
“Don’t Call the Essex 39 a ‘Tragedy’”
On 23 October, 39 people were found dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Essex, South East England. The truck had crossed The Channel from Belgium – a route which is increasingly used by migrants seeking to enter the UK, as well as by trafficking networks. Initially, police said that the 31 men […]
International Women’s Day: Exposing the Plight of Women in Immigration Detention
This International Women’s Day, dozens of women are on hunger strike at the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in the UK. As they protest against the government’s “offensive” immigration practices, like the detention of people who came to the UK as children and the detention of survivors of torture, these women—some of whom are themselves victims of sexual abuse and trafficking—are being held indefinitely at a privately operated facility that has a long history of accusations of sexual abuse by its staff. […]
Statement to the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries Panel on “PMSCs in places of deprivation of liberty and their impact on human rights”
Statement to the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries Panel on “PMSCs in places of deprivation of liberty and their impact on human rights” Michael Flynn, Global Detention Project 27 April 2017 I am the Director of the Global Detention Project, a research center based in Geneva that documents the use of detention […]
Immigration Detention, the Right to Liberty, and Constitutional Law: Global Detention Project Working Paper No. 22
The right to personal liberty is one of the oldest recognized rights in liberal democracies, which raises fundamental constitutional questions about the use of detention as an immigration measure. However, as this GDP Working Paper highlights, in common law countries, lengthy immigration detention on a large scale has become the norm and is largely regarded as constitutional. […]
Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom
The UK’s immigration detention system, one of the largest and most heavily scrutinized in Europe, has been the target of numerous lawsuits, investigations, and public demonstrations. While a recent Home Office-commissioned report called for reducing “boldly and without delay” the detention of certain groups of non-citizens, the new Immigration Act 2016 fails to include many […]
Engaging Governments on Alternatives to Immigration Detention
A leading organizer of the global effort to promote alternatives to immigration detention explores advocacy strategies for spurring detention reforms and the rationale behind the alternatives campaign. […]
