Detention and Deportation News
Published: 1 Jun 2016
Australia
- After Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled last month against the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island, Australia’s asylum seekers have been said to no longer be in detention. However, Iranian journalist and detainee Behrouz Bouchani has said that freedoms remain restricted. According to Bouchani, detainees are only allowed to leave Manus Island if they sign an agreement to be resettled in Papua New Guinea.
- The Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre will close due to the success of the Australian government’s “stop the boats” campaign, according to an announcement made by the Federal Immigration Minister.
- Twelve Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been deported from Australia, including a woman and two children, after being arrested on arrival.
Bulgaria
In an effort to increase transparency and accountability of the detention practices of asylum seekers and migrants, the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) of the Network of European Foundations (NEF) has funded a one-year pilot project, a website called DETAINED. It provides legal and statistical information, analyses, reports, and personal stories of detained migrants.
Hungary
The Hungarian Office for Immigration and Nationality has ordered the transfer of asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin III Regulation, raising concerns about the compatibility of recent measures with human rights standards. In a recent United Nations Peer Review on Hungary’s overall human rights climate more than a dozen nations condemned the country’s increased hostility towards media and civil society.
Rwanda
More than 1,500 Burundians have been deported from Rwanda as part of continuing expulsions since April 2015; the relationship between the neighbouring countries has deteriorated.
Turkey
On a visit to Turkey a delegation of three members of the European Parliament has found that, upon return to Turkey under the EU-Turkey deal, individuals deported from Greece are not given the chance to apply for asylum and are kept in prison-like conditions.
United Kingdom
Now that the European Court of Human Rights has decided that the detention of an Iranian national, who was in immigration detention in the UK for over 4.5 years, was a violation of his right to liberty, the absence of a cap on the maximum period of time the UK can detain a person is questioned once again.
United States
- A judge in Texas has temporarily blocked licensure of a federal immigration detention centre as a child care facility, despite the fact that thousands of mothers are detained there with their children. Despite severe criticism on the imprisoning of children, earlier this month the Texas Department of Family Protective Services announced it would grant a six-month provisional license to the Karnes County Residential Center to operate as a state-approved child care facility. Already existing controversy has built up further, as a mother claims her daughter was molested there. Meanwhile, the CEOs of the for-profit companies that run the Texas detention centres announce they are ‘pleased’ with the revenues earned from the centers that hold children for extended periods of time.
- A transgender woman who was held in an all-male immigration detention facility in Arizona describes her fear, harassment, and torture, as well as the risk of violence and abuse from detainees and guards, experienced by transgender immigrants in detention.
- The Global Detention Project has updated its Immigration Detention Profile on the United States, which has the largest detention and deportation systems in the world. It provides information on detention centres, statistics, domestic law, international law, institutions, socio-economic data, and country links.