Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of departure. Mandatory detention refers to the practice of compulsorily detaining or imprisoning people who are considered to be illegal immigrants or unauthorized arrivals into a country. Some countries have set a maximum period of detention, while others permit indefinite detention.
ICE detention facility in Karnes County, TexasA CBP agent with a female detainee in a holding facility
In the United States, a similar practice began in the early 1980s with Haitians and Cubans detained at Guantanamo Bay, and other groups such as Chinese in jails and detention centres on the mainland. The practice was made mandatory by legislation passed in 1996 in response to the Oklahoma City bombing, and has come under criticism from organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, all of whom have released major studies of the subject, and the American Civil Liberties Union.[1] As of 2010, about 31,000 non-citizens were held in immigration detention on any given day,[2] including children, in over 200 detention centres, jails, and prisons nationwide.[3]
During the five years between 2003 and 2008, about 104[4] mostly young individuals died in detention of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or shortly afterwards, and medical neglect may have contributed to 30 of those deaths.[5] For example, on 6 August 2008, 34-year-old New Yorker Hiu Lui Ng died in the detention of ICE.[6] Editors at The New York Times condemned the death and urged that the system must be fixed.[7] ICE has stated that the number of deaths per capita in detention is dramatically lower for ICE detainees than for US prison and jail populations, that they provide "the best possible healthcare" and that the nation as a whole is "experiencing severe shortages of qualified health professionals."[8] In May 2008 Congress began considering a bill to set new standards for immigrant detainee healthcare.[8]
In 2009, the Obama Administration pledged to overhaul the current immigration detention system and transform it into one that is less punitive and subject to greater federal oversight.[3] Immigrants' rights advocates expressed concern over Obama's reform efforts. Immigrants' rights advocates believe the all current immigration policies "have been undermined by the Immigration agency's continued overreliance on penal incarceration practices and by the pervasive anti-reform culture at local ICE field offices."[9]
In Canada, immigration detainees are held in Immigration Holding Centres (IHCs),[10] known as Le centre de surveillance de l'immigration (CSI) in French,[11] under the auspices of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), who are granted such authority through the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). Immigration detainees may also be kept in provincial jails, either because the IHCs are full, there is no centres in their region, or the detainee's file has a link to criminality.
As of 2020, Canada has three IHCs, each facility with different ownership and operations:[10]
Greater Toronto Area IHC (Toronto, Ontario): Opened in 2003,[13] GTA IHC is provided to the CBSA under a third-party service contract with a vendor. The facility is located around 8km (5.0mi) from Pearson International Airport, containing three stories, with an accommodation capacity of up to 183 detainees.[10]
There is no maximum limit to the length of detention, and children may be "housed" in IHCs to prevent the separation of families.[14] Detainees can include: asylum seekers without sufficient amount of necessary identification papers, foreign workers whose visas had expired, and people awaiting deportation.[15] In 2017, Canada received the highest number of asylum claims in its history;[14] between 2017 and 2018, 6609 people were detained in holding centres, compared to 4,248 a year prior.[16]
Between April 2019 and March 2020, CBSA detained 8,825 people, including 138 minors (mostly with a detained parent)—almost 2,000 of these detainees were kept in provincial jails. However, as of November 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were only 94 immigration detainees in provincial jails, 12 in Laval IHC, 18 in Greater Toronto IHC, and 11 in British Columbia IHC.[15]
In Australia, mandatory immigration detention was adopted in 1992 for all non-citizens who arrive in Australia without a visa. That only 'border applicants' are subject to detention has sparked criticism, as it is claimed to unfairly discriminate against certain migrants.[17] Other unlawful non-citizens, such as those that overstay their visas, are generally granted bridging visas while their applications are processed, and are therefore free to move around the community. The long-term detention of immigrant children has also sparked criticism of the practice by citizen's groups such as ChilOut and human rights organizations. Nonetheless, the High Court of Australia has confirmed, by the majority, the constitutionality of indefinite mandatory detention of aliens.[18] This and related decisions have been the subject of considerable academic critique.[19]
Australia has also sub-contracted with other nations to detain would-be immigrants offshore, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Nauru. Australia also maintains an offshore detention facility on Christmas Island. In July 2008, the Australian government announced it was ending its policy of automatic detention for asylum seekers who arrive in the country without visas.[20] However, by September 2012, offshore detention was reinstated. Following the 2013 Australian federal election policies have been toughened and Operation Sovereign Borders has been launched.
The first immigration detention centre in Assam state had come up in 2008 when the Indian National Congress (INC) government was in power.[21] In 2011 the Congress government set up three more camps.[22] In 2018 and onwards the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government has plans to build more camps across India.[22][23]
Japan
Japanese immigration law permits indefinite detention without a court order including for those that overstay and those who seek asylum.[24] Three immigration detention centers are maintained by immigration bureau for long-term detainees:[25][26]
Higashi Nihon Nyukoku Kanri Center (Ushiku, Ibaraki, East Japan) – capacity: 700
Nishi Nihon Nyukoku Kanri Center (Ibaraki, Osaka, West Japan)
Omura Nyukoku Kanri Center (Omura, Nagasaki) – capacity: 800
Additionally, 16 regional detention houses are managed for short-term detention.[26] However, many of the long-term detainees have been detained in regional short-term detention houses that lack facilities such as common rooms and recreational area.[26] Some detainees spend significant time (up to 13 days) in isolation due to disciplinary measures.[26] Practices of immigration bureau has been criticized for the "lack of transparency", "indefinite detention"[26] and its "arbitrary" nature.[24]
Arrested refugees-immigrants in Fylakio detention center, Evros, Greece
In late 2019, Greece's liberal-conservative government of New Democracy, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced the creation of five closed, pre-departure detention centers for refugees and immigrants, located on the Aegean islands of Leros, Chios, Lesvos, Kos, and Samos.[27] Hosting over 20,000 immigrants, the islands will be compensated with a 30% VAT reduction. Ten other closed detention camps were planned as of 2019.[28]
Italy
Since 6 March 1998 (law n.40/1998, aka the Turco-Napolitano law), the irregular immigrants whose asylum request had been denied were interned into "Provisional Stay Centers" (Italian: Centri di Permanenza Temporanea, CPT), pending their expulsion from Italy.
Since 30 July 2002, the Bossi-Fini law (law n. 189/2002) made illegal entry and stay on Italian territory a criminal offence. Centers interned both people already sanctioned to expulsion (as before) and other irregular immigrants pending their proper identification and the individual evaluation of their asylum requests. Accordingly, since 23 May 2008 (law n.125/2008), they were renamed as "Identification and Expulsion Centers" (Italian: Centri di Identificazione ed Espulsione, CIE).
Since 13 April 2017, the Minniti-Orlando (law n. 46/2017) renamed the centers again, as "Permanence Centers for Repatriations" (Italian: Centri di Permanenza per i Rimpatri, CPR). It was planned to activate 20 CPRs, but by 2018, only the following CPRs were operational:
Besides the CPRs, in Italy there are two other types of not-detention centers for the migrants:
"First Aid and Reception Centers" (Italian: Centri di Primo Soccorso e Accoglienza, CPSA), short-stay centers handling first medical aid and health screening of the incoming migrants, their first identification and the reception of the asylum requests. By 2018 the operational CPSA were located at Lampedusa, Elmas, Otranto and Pozzallo.
"Reception Centers for Asylum Seekers" (Italian: Centri Accoglienza per i Richiedenti Asilo, CARA), were are housed the vast majority of the incoming migrants that due to the limited overall capacity cannot be detained in the CPRs, or the migrants previously detained in the CPRs that have not been repatriated within the statutory maximum detention period[lower-roman 1] and have therefore been released from custody. By the 2018 the operational CARA were located at Gradisca d'Isonzo, Arcevia, Castelnuovo di Porto, Manfredonia, Bari, Brindisi, Crotone, Mineo, Pozzallo, Caltanissetta, Lampedusa, Trapani and Elmas. It has been reported by several NGOs and government organizations that the condition inside the chronically overcrowded CARA centres are often "inhuman".[29][30][31][32]Amnesty International denounced that the immigrants are often placed in containers and in other types of inadequate housing in an extended stay, exposed to extreme temperatures, under conditions of overcrowding.[33]
Malta
In 2002 and the following years, Malta began to receive a large influx of migrants.[34] The government then begun to apply the 1970 Chapter 217 of the Laws of Malta (Immigration Act),[35] providing for detention for all "prohibited migrants", including prospective asylum seekers, soon after apprehension by the immigration authorities. In 2003, the Maltese government substituted the indefinite detention policy with an 18-month detention length (the maximum under EU law) after which the applicant is transferred to an open centre if the processing of his/her application has not been finished.[36]:19
The Maltese detention policy, the strictest in Europe,[citation needed] gathered heavy criticism by the UNHCR for the extensive duration of detention,[37] and in 2004 it was also criticized by the Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe, Álvaro Gil-Robles, as international standards required cautious and individual examination of each case and proper legal checks before incarceration, which were missing in the Maltese legislation. The Council of Europe also criticised four of the administrative detention centres as in "deplorable conditions" and failing to live up to legally binding international standards[36]:19–20
The Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs pursued the migrants detention policy nevertheless, justifying it in 2005 by "national interest, and more specifically, for reasons concerning employment, accommodation and maintenance of public order."[38] In 2008, an EP-OIM comparative study found that "following a long stay in detention [illegal immigrants] are then released into the community...joining the black market economy and suffering abuse with regard to conditions of work.[39]
In the Netherlands, foreigners who fail to obtain a residence status can be detained prior to deportation, as to prevent them from avoiding deportation. Detention centers are located in Zaandam, Zeist, and Alphen aan den Rijn. Besides these detention centers there are deportation centers in Schiphol and Rotterdam (at Rotterdam Airport).
Immigration detention in the Netherlands is criticised for the circumstances immigrants are held in, which is often worse than that of criminal detainees, especially because of the lack of probationary leave, rehabilitation assistance, legal assistance, laws restricting the maximum detention time and a maximum time for judicial review from a judge.[44]
There are also five Temporary Installation Centres (Centros de Instalação Temporária, CIT) located in each major airport, including that of Porto, Lisbon, Faro, Funchal, and Ponta Delgada. Besides this government-led places, in Lisbon there is the Bobadela reception centre for asylum seekers run by the Portuguese Council for Asylum Seekers (Conselho Português para os Refugiados, CPR) and the Pedro Arupe reception centre managed by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
Expulsion paperwork can be initiated when a foreign person is in one of the following situations:[47]
Lacking documentation in Spanish territory.
Working without a work permit, even if they have a valid resident permit.
Be involved in activities that violate public order or interior or exterior state security or any activity contrary to Spanish interests or that could put in danger Spain's relations with other countries.
Be convicted inside or outside of Spain of a crime punishable by incarceration for greater than one year.
Hiding or falsifying their situation from the Ministry of the Interior.
Lacking a legal livelihood or taking part in illegal activity.
Various civil organizations (e.g. APDHA, SOS Racismo, and Andalucía Acoge) have appealed to the Supreme Court of Spain, declaring the regulations behind the CIEs null and void for violating several human rights.[48]
The British Home Office has a number of detention centres, including (as of January2015[update]): 11 designated Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), 4 designated Residential and Short Term Holding Facilities, and 1 Non-Residential Short Term Holding Facility. Four of the IRCs are managed by the Prison Service and the others are outsourced to private companies including Mitie, GEO Group, G4S Group, and Serco. Individuals can be detained under Immigration Act powers for a number of reasons. The largest category of detainees is people who have claimed asylum. Other people include those detained awaiting determination of their right to entry to the UK, people who have been refused permission to enter and are awaiting removal, people who have overstayed the expiry of their visas or have not complied with their visa terms, and people lacking the required documentation to live in the UK.[50]
Additionally, some prisons detain migrants or asylum seekers purely under Immigration Act powers, usually if they have been serving a prison sentence which has expired. There are also four short term holding facilities in Manchester, Dover, Harwich and Colnbrook.
The British government has been given powers to detain asylum seekers and migrants at any stage of the asylum process.[61] The use of asylum has increased with the introduction of the process of 'fast track', or the procedure by which the Immigration Service assess asylum claims which are capable of being decided quickly. Fast-tracking takes place in Oakington Reception Centre, Harmondsworth, and Yarl's Wood.
There are three situations in which it is lawful to detain an asylum seeker or migrant.
To fast track their claim
If the government has reasonable grounds to believe that the asylum seeker or migrant will abscond or not abide by the conditions of entry.
If the asylum seeker or migrant is about to be deported.
Once detained, it is possible to apply for bail. There is legal aid for representation at bail hearings and the organisation Bail for Immigration Detainees provides help and assistance for those subject to detention to represent themselves.[62]
Criticism of UK immigration detention focuses on comparisons with prison conditions[64] in which persons are kept though they have never been convicted of a crime, the lack of judicial oversight, and on the lengthy bureaucratic delays that often prevent a person from being released, particularly when there is no evidence that the detainee will present a harm or a burden to society if allowed to remain at large while their situation is examined. In 2006, the conditions of detention centres were criticised, by the UK Inspector of Prisons.[65]
See also
Heikinharju's immigration detention facility in Oulu, Finland
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and undocumented immigration that threaten national security and public safety.
Australian immigration detention facilities comprise a number of different facilities throughout Australia, including the Australian territory of Christmas Island. Such facilities also exist in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, namely the Nauru Regional Processing Centre and the Manus Regional Processing Centre.
Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, originally Villawood Migrant Hostel or Villawood Migrant Centre, split into a separate section named Westbridge Migrant Hostel from 1968 to 1984, is an Australian immigration detention facility located in the suburb of Villawood in Sydney, Australia.
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the former territories of the British Empire and the European Union.
Canadian immigration and refugee law concerns the area of law related to the admission of foreign nationals into Canada, their rights and responsibilities once admitted, and the conditions of their removal. The primary law on these matters is in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, whose goals include economic growth, family reunification, and compliance with humanitarian treaties.
Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, near the town of Strathaven that is also known as Dungavel Castle or Dungavel House. It is operated by Mitie Care and Custody, under contract with the law-enforcement command Immigration Enforcement for its detention of immigrants for the Home Office. It is the only such facility in Scotland.
Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre is a detention centre for foreign nationals prior to their deportation from the United Kingdom, one of 10 such centres currently in the UK. It is located near Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire, England, and is operated by Serco, which describes the place as "a fully contained residential centre housing adult women and adult family groups awaiting immigration clearance." Its population is, and has been, overwhelmingly female.
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in Harmondsworth, London Borough of Hillingdon, near London Heathrow Airport run by Mitie. Harmondsworth, which neighbours the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre. It holds around 620 men.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) is a non-profit legal services organization in Washington state. NWIRP's mission is to promote justice by defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education.
The Australian government has a policy and practice of detaining in immigration detention facilities non-citizens not holding a valid visa, suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in immigration detention until a decision is made by the immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of origin/passport. Persons in immigration detention may at any time opt to voluntarily leave Australia for their country of origin, or they may be deported or given a bridging or temporary visa. In 1992, Australia adopted a mandatory detention policy obliging the government to detain all persons entering or being in the country without a valid visa, while their claim to remain in Australia is processed and security and health checks undertaken. Also, at the same time, the law was changed to permit indefinite detention, from the previous limit of 273 days. The policy was instituted by the Keating government in 1992, and was varied by the subsequent Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and Albanese Governments. The policy is regarded as controversial and has been criticised by a number of organisations. In 2004, the High Court of Australia confirmed the constitutionality of indefinite mandatory detention of non-citizens in Al-Kateb v Godwin. However, this interpretation was overturned in a landmark decision, NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, in 2023, with the High Court concluding the practice was unlawful and unconstitutional.
Campsfield House was an immigration detention centre located in Kidlington near Oxford, England, operated by private prison firm Group 4 under contract with the British government. For 25 years, it was the site of a regular monthly protest from human rights campaigners and saw a number of internal protests, hunger strikes and two suicides. However, it was highly praised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons at the last full inspection in 2014. Campsfield closed in 2018.
North West Point Immigration Detention Centre, formerly Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre is an Australian immigration detention facility located on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
The United States government holds tens of thousands of immigrants in detention under the control of Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
African immigration to Israel is the international movement to Israel from Africa of people that are not natives or do not possess Israeli citizenship in order to settle or reside there. This phenomenon began in the second half of the 2000s, when a large number of people from Africa entered Israel, mainly through the then-lightly fenced border between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the data of the Israeli Interior Ministry, 26,635 people arrived illegally in this way by July 2010, and over 55,000 by January 2012. In an attempt to curb the influx, Israel constructed the Egypt–Israel barrier. Since its completion in December 2013, the barrier has almost completely stopped the immigration of Africans into Israel across the Sinai border.
Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, with government policy and public opinion changing over the years.
The Saharonim Prison is an Israeli detention facility for African asylum seekers located in the Negev desert. It is the largest of a planned four camps with its total capacity of 8,000 inmates. Together with the Ktzi'ot prison, Sadot prison and the Nachal Raviv tent camp they detain South Sudanese, Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers who crossed the border from Egypt to Israel.
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) is a center affiliated with the Heartland Alliance in the United States that "is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers." Its executive director is Mary Meg McCarthy and it is headquartered in Chicago.
Immigration detention in the United Kingdom is the practice of detaining foreign nationals for the purpose of immigration control. Unlike some other countries, UK provisions to detain are not outlined in a codified constitution. Instead, immigration enforcement holds individuals under Powers granted in the Immigration Act 1971 and by the Home Office Detention Centre Rules (2001). The expressed purpose of immigration detention is to "effect removal; initially to establish a person's identity or basis of claim; or [implement] where there is reason to believe that the person will fail to comply with any conditions attached to a grant of immigration bail." Detention can only lawfully be exercised under these provisions where there is a "realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable period".
The Trump administration has detained migrants attempting to enter the United States at the United States–Mexico border. Government reports from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General in May 2019 and July 2019 found that migrants had been detained under conditions that failed federal standards. These conditions have included prolonged detention, overcrowding, and poor hygiene and food standards.
Mental health consequences of immigration detention include higher rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia conduct issues, hyperactivity, compared to the general population. These harmful impacts exist regardless of past traumatic experiences, age, or nationality, or even time elapsed. Immigration detention may take place at country or state borders, in certain international jurisdiction zones, on offshore islands, boats, camps, or could even be in the form of house arrest. The use of immigration detention around the world has increased recently, leading to greater concerns about the health and wellbeing of detained migrants. A 2018 scoping review from BMC Psychiatry gathered information showing that immigration detention consistently results in negative impacts on detainees.
↑ St. John, Joseph, Martha Delicata, and Mario Azzopardi. 2008. "The Organisation of Asylum and Migration Policies in Malta." National Report 2008 of the National Contact Point. Malta: European Migration Network. p. 11.
↑ Amore, Katia (2007). "Malta", pp. 237–48 in European Immigration – a Sourcebook, edited by A. Triandafyllidou and R. Gropas. Egland: Ashgate Publishing.
↑ Silverman, Stephanie J.; Hajela, Ruchi (6 February 2015). "Immigration Detention in the UK". Migration Observatory, University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 15 May 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
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