Detention and Deportation News
Published: 1 Sep 2016
Australia
Australia and Papua New Guinea confirm that Manus Island detention centre will close while Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton maintains that none of the 854 people currently detained there will be resettled in Australia. Australia’s other offshore detention centre on Nauru Island will be subject to investigation after over 2,000 leaked incident reports expose the massive scale of abuse of children. The company that houses people in both centres has been accused of multiple violations of international law.
Belgium
The State Council critiques the Belgian government’s detention of children, stating that it interferes with the child’s right to family life.
Canada
Migrants and failed asylum seekers, including minors, are often detained in correctional facilities despite the absence of criminal charges. Between 2010-2015, 28 teenagers were detained in jails. Immigration detainees who are sick or mentally ill are also often transferred to jails. Cabinet ministers have announced a reform of detention practices, including a reduction in the use of jails; however migrants’ rights advocates criticise the proposed reforms for failing to establish civilian oversight of the Canada Border Services Agency.
FRANCE: Non-governmental organisations working in detention centres in France have published a report [in French] documenting the large-scale use of detention. The report found that between 2011-2015, almost 50,000 people were detained.
Japan
Immigration detainees went on hunger strike in July to protest inhumane conditions, and the rejection of their applications for provisional release.
The Netherlands
Doctors of the World, Amnesty International the Netherlands, and the LOS Foundation released a report urging the Dutch government to prevent the detention of vulnerable migrants. The Dutch parliament is currently reviewing new legislation regarding detention, although the organisations that compiled the report do not believe this legislation will bring about improvements.
USA
Judge unseals photos and documents revealing unsanitary and unsafe conditions in Arizona detention facilities in a lawsuit brought on by immigrant advocacy groups on behalf of detainees.
A privately run detention facility in Georgia has not fulfilled its contractual obligation to install video teleconferencing. Lawyers also report harassment from staff, unreasonable delays while attempting to visit clients, and other obstacles to providing legal representation.
A settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will end restrictions on telephone use in four California immigration detention centres.
While a court has determined that accompanied children may not be held for lengthy periods of detention in unlicensed facilities in accordance with the Flores agreement, the same ruling does not find that parents of detained children are also permitted release.
22 mothers held with their children in a Pennsylvania centre allege that they were forced to suspend their hunger strike after receiving threats from immigration officials.