Publications
Published: 1 Sep 2016
“This Progress Report provides a first update on the detention situation affecting persons of concern to UNHCR in each of the 12 focus countries following the Baseline Report, which states an overview of the detention situation in the 12 focus countries as at the end of 2013, before the launch of the Global Strategy.” UNHCR global strategy beyond detention: Progress report. UNHCR. 18 Aug 2016.
“Overall, this report and its first update published mid 2016 are intended to guide decision-makers and practitioners to remedy the shortcomings in the national frameworks pertaining to detention and support policy formulation, especially in the area of alternatives to detention, helping States to fulfil their international commitments. Globally, it intends to serve as a resource to evaluate progress in the implementation of the Global Strategy – Beyond Detention.” UNHCR global strategy beyond detention: Baseline report. UNHCR. 18 Aug 2016.
“This instruction explains how caseworkers should consider claims made on the basis of sexual orientation. This is to make sure that the relevant information is obtained in order to make a balanced decision so that we grant protection to those who face persecution because of their sexuality and refuse protection to those who do not.” Asylum policy instruction: Sexual orientation in asylum claims. UK Home Office. 3 August 2016.
“While there is research indicating that immigration detention does not deter irregular migration and that non-detention mechanisms can effectively replace detention policies, states continue to embrace detention, including viewing it as a symbolic measure demonstrating control of borders. Nevertheless, some countries have sought to limit their use of detention and proved responsive to reform efforts (Sampson 2015; Sampson, Mitchell 2013).” Engaging governments on alternatives to immigration detention. Grant Mitchell. Global Detention Project. 29 July 2016.
“Hundreds of interviews with people rescued at sea by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) during 2015 and 2016 have exposed the alarming levels of violence and exploitation to which refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are subjected in Libya. Many of those rescued by MSF say they directly experienced violence in the country, while almost all report having witnessed acts of extreme violence against refugees and migrants, including beatings, sexual attacks and murder.” Multimedia story: Trapped in transit. Doctors Without Borders. 26 July 2016.
“In the realm of immigration detention, the role of public affairs officers, I learned, was to help hide, manipulate, and airbrush reality. Without investigative journalism sufficiently probing to pierce that obfuscation, even the need for change could go unrecognized.” The impact of investigative journalism on U.S. immigration detention reform. Nina Bernstein. Global Detention Project. 26 July 2016.
“Despite its legal obligations under human rights and refugee protection conventions, and despite its support for refugees globally, the United States is falling far short at home. Refugees who request protection at U.S. airports and borders are often subjected to “mandatory detention” under a flawed “expedited removal” process and sent to facilities with conditions typical of those in criminal prisons.” Lifeline on lockdown: Increased U.S. detention of asylum seekers. Olga Byrne, Eleanor Acer, and Robyn Barnard. Human Rights First. 25 July 2016.
“The respondent had worked as a DJ at a Somalian Radio Station from May 2011 until September 2013. In October 2013 he arrived in the UK and applied for asylum on the basis that he was at risk of persecution on return to Somalia for reasons of political opinion and, in particular, due to his profession as a journalist. He claimed that he had received death threats from Al-Shabaab, which forced him to leave Somalia.” Should asylum seekers take action to avoid persecution on the ground of political opinion incorrectly attributed to them? Lois Williams. UK Human Rights Blog. 22 July 2016.
“The Kenyan government should urgently address allegations of abuses in counterterrorism operations, provide information regarding the identities, and whereabouts of people arrested in these operations, and ensure basic due process rights for all individuals arrested or currently in custody.” Deaths and disappearances: Abuses in counterterrorism operations in Nairobi and in northeastern Kenya. Human Rights Watch. 19 July 2016.
“Australia’s system of privatised, offshore detention centres (ODCs) for asylum seekers, on remote Pacific islands, is an ongoing human rights catastrophe. Spanish stock exchange-listed company Ferrovial SA – the company that operates Heathrow Airport, toll roads in North America and security services – operates the ODCs through its subsidiary Broadspectrum, exposing Ferrovial to complicity in gross human rights abuses and attendant material legal, financial and reputational risk.” Association with abuse: The financial sector’s association with gross human rights abuses of people seeking asylum in Australia. Brynn O’Brien and Rachel Ball. Human Rights Law Centre. July 2016.
“Extensive research on migration conducted by the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona found that migrants’ family ties were a far stronger influence on their behavior than the criminal court and / or deportation process they experienced in the U.S.” Indefensible: A decade of mass incarceration of migrants prosecuted for crossing the border. Judith A. Greene, Bethany Carson, and Andrea Black. Grassroots Leadership. July 2016.
“More than 50 percent of the population of the Polisario refugee camp is under 18 and few have ever set foot in their “homeland.” Limited employment opportunities mean many young Sahrawis are joining the 6,000 to 7,000 strong Ejercito de Liberación Popular Saharaui (ELPS or Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army), the military wing of the Polisario Front. Deeply unhappy with the lack of diplomatic progress in resolving the independence issue, many young Sahrawis are calling for a return to the battlefield.” Political stalemate heightens appeal of religious extremism for Western Sahara youth. Andrew McGregor. Jamestown Foundation. 24 June 2016.
“The flow of migrants into Italy continues to be dealt with as an “emergency” situation. The EU’s “hotspot” approach, outlined in the European Agenda for Migration of May 2015 as a short-term measure, has been implemented in Italy and Greece and is an approach involving EU officers, in collaboration with national authorities, in the identification, fingerprinting and registration of migrants … The European response to the refugee crisis is proving ineffective and dangerous. Ineffective, because it is failing to hold back the migratory flows, which was its main objective, and to ensure appropriate management of incoming migrants.” Hotspots, rights denied: The lack of a legal framework is threatening the rights of migrants reaching Italy. Guilia Capitani. Oxfam. 22 June 2016.
“The week before the EU quota plan vote, thousands of Poles marched in cities across the country chanting “Today refugees, tomorrow terrorists!” and “Poland, free of Islam!” Many observers have portrayed this Islamophobia, demonstrated at far-right protests and in online forums, as an “Eastern European” problem. Yet while the media have tended to ascribe these anti-migrant attitudes to either racism or economic concerns, the picture is much more nuanced. The calculations behind the Polish political rhetoric that has stoked increasingly harsh, and at times xenophobic, public opinion are part of a much larger European trend of anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiment.” Diminishing solidarity: Polish attitudes toward the European migration and refugee Crisis. Bart Bachman. Migration Policy Institute. 16 June 2016.
“In attempting to contain those coming from outside Europe, the EU member states have turned Schengen external borders into places of physical and psychological violence where the basic human rights of migrants are being undermined. Calais (which shares a border with the United Kingdom), Melilla and Ceuta (the only European land borders on the Africa continent), or Pozzallo in Sicily, are emblematic of the implementation of these policies and their offshoots.” Observation report: European borders. Keep out? La Cimade. June 2016.
“Based on these reports, more people die on the doorstep of developed countries than when en route in developing countries and one might conclude that the Mediterranean crossing is the most dangerous part of the passage from the Horn of Africa to Europe. However, migrants and refugees from the Horn of Africa arriving in Libya, Egypt or Europe consistently indicate that even more people might die while crossing the Sahara Desert than while crossing the Mediterranean, but reliable data on migrant deaths on land routes have so far been unavailable.” Forgotten fatalities: The number of migrants deaths before reaching the Mediterranean. Danish Refugee Council. June 2016.
“Since the inception of the United Nations, the international community has come together many times to find solutions for refugee situations on every major continent. Yet, we have always had to reinvent our responses anew. The scale and complexity of refugee movements today have brought to the fore the need for making such responses more predictable, systematic, and equitable. Sharing responsibility can help alleviate tensions between states and mitigate against potential negative consequences for refugees. It can also ensure that states are able to respond to refugees more effectively. In the current context, the provisions of the 1951 Convention could be supplemented with additional agreements amongst states on responsibility-sharing arrangements, defining when such arrangements would be needed, articulating measures that would be taken, and setting out a framework for states to contribute in line with their capacities and to receive support according to their levels of need.” Prospects for responsibility sharing in the refugee context. Volker Türk. Center for Migration Studies of New York. 2016.
“Many refugees and asylum seekers in Uganda are poor and unable to afford the costs in the formal justice system. The language and procedures adopted in the formal justice system are foreign and complicated to follow. As a result, refugees seek remedies from informal justice structures that are near to them. In order to enable justice for refugees in the formal justice system, Refugee Law Project (RLP) has since 1999 provided free legal aid and psycho-social services to refugees and asylum seekers. In 2012, RLP with funding from Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) extended its legal aid services to forced migrants in refugee settlements in western Uganda. During its service provision, it was noted that some cases are reported to RLP after one or more community structures have failed to resolve the issue.” “Courts can never solve problems in the community!”: A study of informal justice structures in refugee settlements in Uganda. Alauterio Ntegyerize and Charity Ahumuza Onyoin. Refugee Law Project. 2016.
“In the Asia Pacific region, national civil society organisations (CSOs) and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play crucial roles in providing services and advocating for refugee protection. However, they often have limited access to specialist training, technical resources, stakeholders and other advocates working in refugee protection. The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) was created as a platform for these individuals and organisations to work together and engage with international NGOs, policy makers, UNHCR and intergovernmental organisations such as ASEAN and SAARC.” APRRN annual report 2015. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network. 2016.
“After much effort from Hong Kong’s human rights advocates fighting against the notoriously low recognition rate of asylum claims, the Hong Kong government introduced the Unified Screening System early 2014. This article gives an account of this new mechanism after two years of its implementation. It argues that the unified mechanism provides little effectiveness to improve Hong Kong’s refugee situation, merely acting as a reactive and resistant response mechanism.” Hong Kong’s Unified Screening System: Lack of unification to Improve Asylum Seekers’ Reality. Lan Hoang. Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration. June 2016.