In 2008 the European Commission presented its first proposal to amend the 2003 ‘receptions conditions directive’ which laid down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers. The proposal was then modified in 2011 following difficult negotiations between co-legislators the…
Around the globe, government policymakers have characterised detention as an effective way to keep track of migrants seen as potential security risks as well as to make migration less appealing. There is little evidence, however, that this strategy – although…
Kenya plays host to large numbers of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), stateless persons, economic migrants and victims of human trafficking and smuggling. The Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) runs a detention monitoring scheme comprising ten detention monitors stationed in…
Esmaila Connateh was one of an estimated 126,247 foreigners deported en masse from Angola in 2004. No arrest warrants were issued, nor reason given for the arrests. Their official documents were confiscated. Property was confiscated or left behind. Most were…
After receiving desperate phone calls from immigrant women detained at the Baker County jail in rural Florida, attorneys from Americans for Immigrant Justice decided to visit the facility. When the team arrived, however, the warden insisted the jail held no…
High walls, fences, locks, guards. These are the things that come to mind when we think about immigration detention, and justifiably so. The incarceration of migrants in jail-like facilities is a growing phenomenon worldwide and a serious concern due to…
Detention seriously harms virtually anyone who experiences it. Scientific studies of detained asylum seekers show that detention leads to the build-up of clinically significant symptoms of severe depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and even self-harm. For nearly a decade JRS…
Alternatives to detention (ATDs) ‘work’ from the point of view of asylum seekers and refugees if they prevent unnecessary detention and other excessive restrictions, support individuals in seeking protection and achieving a swift resolution of their claims, and – if…
The development of alternatives to detention has become a significant global counter-trend to the normalisation of detaining migrants. Where alternatives have worked, they have relied on the engagement and participation of migrants themselves in immigration processes. Yet they have not…
On 19 September 2001, I was sitting on a plane from Abidjan to the UK. As I looked out the window, I thought that nothing worse than fighting against Charles Taylor’s army at home in Liberia could happen to me.…