Detention and deportation (Forced Migration Review 44): Recent Episodes
Oxford University
Asylum seekers and refugees – men, women and even children – are increasingly detained and interned around the world, as are numbers of other migrants. Sometimes detained indefinitely and often in appalling conditions, they may suffer not only deprivation of their liberty but other abuses of their human rights too. Detention may appear to be a convenient solution to states’ political quest to manage migration (often as a precursor to deportation) but it is an expensive option and has lasting effects on those detained. In the search for a more humane – and cheaper – approach, agencies and government authorities have trialled a variety of alternatives to detention. FMR 44 includes 36 articles on immigration detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation, plus a mini-feature on the Syria crisis and a selection of other articles.
See more at: http://www.fmreview.org/detention
Although legally justifiable, increasing restrictions on movement and work for refugees in Iran have detrimental effects for the refugees.
The integration of Central African refugees into existing Cameroonian communities has had far-reaching development impacts on the region and the state as a whole.
Mistrust and fear abound among Rwandan refugees in Uganda. The dearth of information available about cessation urgently needs to be addressed by UNHCR.
The monitoring of refused asylum seekers post-deportation is critical to effective protection.
Israel's aggressive campaign of arrest and deportation of South Sudanese asylum seekers contravenes the principle of non-refoulement and international standards for voluntary, dignified return.
While AVR is clearly preferable to deportation, NGOs and academics alike have criticised these schemes for being misleadingly labelled and lacking genuine voluntariness.
Programmes to assist deported Afghan youth to reintegrate on their return are failing miserably. There needs to be much greater awareness of what it is like for them when they return, and of good practice in implementing such programmes.
Young Afghans forced to return to Kabul having spent formative years in the UK encounter particular risks and lack any tailored support on their return.
States continue to show a marked reluctance to implement alternatives to immigration detention. The reason for this may well be because such alternatives ignore the disciplinary function of detention by which states coerce people into cooperation.
Alternative to detention programmes may be less restrictive and less expensive than formal detention but they may still have drawbacks. The provision of competent legal advice appears to be key to low rates of absconding.
Sweden is often held up as following 'best practice' in legislation with regard to detention and alternatives to detention but research by the Swedish Red Cross highlights a number of flaws.
A group of Australian advocates lobbied successfully for the implementation of community detention as a viable, humane alternative, giving asylum seekers an opportunity to engage in a more meaningful existence.
Preliminary outcomes of an alternative to detention programme in Belgium, based on case management and individual 'coaches' for families, are positive and merit consideration by other countries.
While there is growing recognition of the value of community-based alternatives to detention in the US, shortfalls in funding and political will are hindering implementation of improved services and best practice.
The UK detains migrants on a large scale, and has had limited success in developing alternatives. The British experience highlights the need for a cultural shift towards engagement with migrants in place of reliance on enforcement.
Recent research in Toronto and Geneva indicates that asylum seekers and refugees are predisposed to be cooperative with the refugee status determination (RSD) system and other immigration procedures.
The way in which we think about detention can shape our ability to consider the alternatives. What is needed is a shift in thinking away from place-based control and towards risk assessment, management and targeted enforcement.
Endangering the health and well-being of people by detaining them is unnecessary; governments can instead use community-based alternatives that are more dignified for migrants and more cost-effective for states.
Sweden is generally considered to have high standards of immigrant detention. Irrespective of the high standards life in detention still poses a huge threat to the health and wellbeing of detained irregular migrants.
Research by the Women's Refugee Commission into immigration detention of women in the US explores why and how differences in treatment between men and women in detention matter.
Where this is no viable forum to address human rights violations by African states, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will consider such violations.
Refugees and asylum seekers detained in Kenya risk multiple convictions and protracted detention due to poor coordination between immigration officials, police and prison officers.
International principles of equality and non-discrimination must be applied to the UK's immigration detention system, which at present fails to meet even the minimum standards which apply in prisons.
The South Africa example is instructive in demonstrating both the limits and the dangers of the increasing reliance on detention as a migration management tool.
On 29 June 2013 the amended 'Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (recast)' became law.
Those seeking asylum in Germany face fast-track assessments, risk of immediate detention and deportation, and lengthy stays in 'communal shelters' scattered throughout Germany.
Despite relatively good conditions in the Czech Republic's closed detention facilities, serious questions should be asked about the justification for detention.
When I fled civil war to come to the UK, I thought that I would be free but instead of helping me, the UK detained me for three years.
Over the last 50 years, Australian governments have introduced a range of measures that seek to deter asylum seekers. Current practice sees asylum seekers once again detained in offshore detention in neighbouring countries.
Can the promotion of liberal norms have an unintended and damaging impact on how states confront the challenges of irregular immigration?
Recently established monitoring committees in Japan are opening new channels of communication and opportunities for improvements in detention facilities.
Draft regulations for the running of Spain's Foreigner Internment Centres fall far short of the hopes and demands of those campaigning for better guarantees of the rights of detainees.
States should develop alternatives to immigration detention to ensure that children are free to live in a community-based setting throughout the resolution of their immigration status.
States often detain children without adequate attention to international law and in conditions that can be inhumane and damaging. Asylum-seeking and refugee children must have their rights protected.
Since 2004 Médecins Sans Frontières has provided medical and psychosocial support for asylum seekers and migrants held in different immigration detention facilities across Europe.
At the heart of the asylum debate in Australia there is little sense of the individual in question. People who had previously been asylum seekers in immigration detention express in their own words the impact that detention had on them.
There is no understanding of what the term "arbitrary" entails; understanding it requires awareness of the different factors affecting how individual deprivations of liberty are examined and understood.
Studies in countries around the world have consistently found high levels of psychiatric symptoms among imprisoned asylum seekers, both adults and children.
UNHCR's new detention guidelines challenge governments to rethink their detention policies and to consider alternatives to detention in every case.