Global Detention Project | Mapping immigration detention around the world

Despite decades of reports documenting concerns about the operation and impact of its detention system, the UK is currently seeking to massively expand its immigration detention capacity. A recent report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons highlights serious shortcomings in the treatment of female immigration detainees across the country. The UK government is currently...

Argentina, like much of South America, has historically not employed detention as an immigration enforcement tool and has recognised migration as a fundamental right. In recent years, however, the country has shifted towards a more restrictive approach. Under the populist firebrand President Javier Milei, this shift has accelerated considerably, including by amending the coun...

Trinidad and Tobago has a long track record placing children and families in immigration detention, including children fleeing nearby Venezuela, and the country has no legal provision prohibiting the detention of children and their families. Although not detained in the country’s sole dedicated immigration detention centre in Aripo, child migrants and refugees and their famil...

Tajikistan has served as a refuge for several waves of refugees from Afghanistan–such as those fleeing the civil war of the 1990s and the U.S invasion in the 2000s. Amid the Taliban’s rapid territorial advances in Afghanistan in 2021, and concerns about a potential influx of people fleeing the country, the Tajik government announced in July 2021 that it would accept up to 100...

For years, India has served as an important destination for asylum seekers and refugees from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. However, under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) there has been a marked increase in xenophobic attitudes and policies; a securitised approach to immigration enforcement; and intensified detention and depo...