Detention, Alternatives to Detention, and Deportation
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Issue 44 September 2013 Detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation Detention of refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants is widely used by many states as part of their migration management strategy, often as the precursor to deportation. However, there are viable, more humane alternatives. plus: mini-feature on the Syria crisis and articles on: Afghan refugees in Iran, community rejection in DRC, cash and vouchers, CAR refugees in Cameroon, refugees’ right to work, and information about cessation for Rwandan refugees. FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY Forced Migration Review issue 44 www.fmreview.org/detention 3 From the editors 50 New models for alternatives to detention in the US Megan Bremer, Kimberly Haynes, Nicholas Kang, Detention Michael D Lynch and Kerri Socha 4 Detention under scrutiny 52 Alternatives to detention: Alice Edwards open family units in Belgium 7 Psychological harm and the case for alternatives Liesbeth Schockaert Janet Cleveland 55 Community detention in Australia 9 Establishing arbitrariness Catherine Marshall, Suma Pillai and Louise Stack Stephen Phillips 58 Flawed assessment process leads to under-use of 10 Voices from inside Australia’s detention centres alternatives in Sweden Melissa Phillips Maite Zamacona 11 Health at risk in immigration detention facilities 59 Questions over alternatives to detention Ioanna Kotsioni, Aurélie Ponthieu and Stella Egidi programmes 14 The impact of immigration detention on children Stephanie J Silverman Alice Farmer 60 State reluctance to use alternatives to detention 17 Captured childhood Clément de Senarclens David Corlett Deportation 18 No change: foreigner internment centres in Spain Cristina Manzanedo 62 No longer a child: from the UK to Afghanistan 20 Detention monitoring newly established in Japan Catherine Gladwell Naoko Hashimoto 64 Shortcomings in assistance for deported Afghan 22 Be careful what you wish for youth Michael Flynn Nassim Majidi 24 A return to the ‘Pacific Solution’ 65 Assisted voluntary return schemes Fiona McKay Anne Koch 27 My story: indefinite detention in the UK 66 Deportation of South Sudanese from Israel William Laurie Lijnders 28 Closed detention in the Czech Republic: 68 Post-deportation monitoring: on what grounds? why, how and by whom? Beáta Szakácsová Leana Podeszfa and Friederike Vetter 29 Threats to liberty in Germany Syria crisis Jolie Chai 30 New European standards 70 Humanitarian and medical challenges of assisting Dersim Yabasun new refugees in Lebanon and Iraq Caroline Abu Sa’Da and Micaela Serafini 31 Detention of women: principles of equality and non-discrimination 74 Failure to adapt: aid in Jordan and Lebanon Ali McGinley Jon Bennett 32 Security rhetoric and detention in South Africa 75 Dimensions of gender-based violence against Roni Amit Syrian refugees in Lebanon Ghida Anani 34 Detention in Kenya: risks for refugees and asylum seekers 79 Conflict in Syria compounds vulnerability of Lucy Kiama and Dennis Likule Palestine refugees Gavin David White 36 A last resort in cases of wrongful detention and deportation in Africa General articles Matthew C Kane and Susan F Kane 81 UNHCR in Uganda: 37 Women: the invisible detainees better than its reputation suggests Michelle Brané and Lee Wang Will Jones 39 Do higher standards of detention promote well-being? 83 Insights from the refugee response in Cameroon Soorej Jose Puthoopparambil, Beth Maina-Ahlberg and Angela Butel Magdalena Bjerneld 85 Freedom of movement of Afghan refugees in Iran Farshid Farzin and Safinaz Jadali Alternatives to detention 87 Community rejection following sexual assault as 40 Immigration detention: looking at the alternatives ‘forced migration’ Philip Amaral AJ Morgen 42 Thinking outside the fence 89 Cash and vouchers: Robyn Sampson a good thing for the protection of beneficiaries? Michelle Berg, Hanna Mattinen and Gina Pattugalan 44 Predisposed to cooperate Cathryn Costello and Esra Kaytaz 92 Refugees’ rights to work Emily E Arnold-Fernández and Stewart Pollock 45 Alternatives to detention in the UK: from enforcement to engagement? 94 News from the Refugee Studies Centre Jerome Phelps Detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation 3 September 2013 Forced Migration Review From the editors (FMR) provides a forum for the regular eeking asylum is not an unlawful act. Yet asylum seekers and exchange of practical experience, refugees – men, women and even children – are increasingly information and ideas between S detained and interned around the world, as are numbers of other researchers, refugees and internally displaced people, and those who migrants. Sometimes detained indefinitely and often in appalling work with them. It is published in conditions, they may suffer not only deprivation of their liberty but English, Arabic, Spanish and French other abuses of their human rights too. Families are separated. by the Refugee Studies Centre of the Medical and psychological needs are ignored. Contact with the Oxford Department of International outside world is fractured. Rigid rules, surveillance and restraints Development, University of Oxford. degrade, humiliate and damage. And lack of information and hope leads to despair. Staff Marion Couldrey & Detention may appear to be a convenient solution to states’ political Maurice Herson (Editors) quest to manage migration but it is an expensive option and has Kelly Pitt (Funding & lasting effects on people and on their capacity to be independent, Promotion Assistant) self-sufficient and fulfilled members of the community when released. Sharon Ellis (Assistant) In the search for a more humane – and cheaper – approach, agencies Forced Migration Review and government authorities have trialled a variety of alternatives Refugee Studies Centre to detention, some of which are promising in terms of low levels of Oxford Department of International absconding, a greater degree of normality for the people involved, Development, University of Oxford, and improved chances of eventual integration. It will take shifts in 3 Mansfield Road, attitudes as well as successful pilots, however, for alternatives to Oxford OX1 3TB, UK detention to become the norm. [email protected] For many people, their detention is the precursor to their deportation (or ‘removal’). Here again, there seems to be a marked lack of care Skype: fmreview for people’s rights and protection, as well as for their safe, successful Tel: +44 (0)1865 281700 and sustainable reintegration. www.fmreview.org We would like to thank Jerome Phelps, Robyn Sampson and Liza Disclaimer Schuster for their assistance as special advisors on the feature Opinions in FMR do not necessarily theme. We are very grateful to the the Oak Foundation and UNHCR reflect the views of the Editors, for funding this issue. the Refugee Studies Centre or the This issue also includes a mini-feature on the current Syria crisis, plus University of Oxford. a number of general articles on other aspects of forced migration. Copyright The full issue is online at www.fmreview.org/detention in html, pdf Any FMR print or online material may and audio formats. It will be available in print and online in English, be freely reproduced, provided that acknowledgement is given to ‘Forced French, Spanish and Arabic. An expanded contents listing for the Migration Review www.fmreview.org’. issue is available at www.fmreview.org/detention/FMR44listing.pdf Please help disseminate this issue as widely as possible by circulating to networks, posting links, mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook and adding it to resources lists. Please email us at [email protected] if ISSN 1460-9819 you would like print copies. Designed by Details of our forthcoming issues can be found on page 95. Art24 www.art-24.co.uk To be notified about new and forthcoming FMR issues, please sign up Printed by for our email alerts at www.fmreview.org/request/alerts or join us on Fine Print (Services) Ltd Facebook or Twitter. www.fineprint.co.uk With our best wishes Marion Couldrey and Maurice Herson to carry, Editors, Forced Migration Review lighter cheaper to read on mobile to post. New styleeasier FMR – devices and 4 Detention, alternatives to detention, and deportation FMR 44 September 2013 Detention under scrutiny Alice Edwards Seeking asylum is not an unlawful act, yet asylum seekers and refugees are increasingly detained and interned around the world, suffering not only deprivation of liberty but also other abuses of their human rights. UNHCR’s new detention guidelines challenge governments to rethink their detention policies and to consider alternatives to detention in every case. “It is a gross injustice to deprive of his liberty overt ways by the media, politicians and for significant periods of time a person who other leading public figures to ignite fears has committed no crime and does not intend of the ‘other’ in host communities; they pose to do so. No civilised country should willingly some of the greatest threats to the global tolerate such injustices.” Lord T Bingham, The asylum system, and need to be combated.2 Rule of Law (London: Allen Lane, 2010). As governments have attempted to respond The widespread and increasing use of to these challenges, detention policies immigration detention has come under and practices have in some contexts been considerable scrutiny in recent years. As a expanded; however, they have not always means of controlling entry to the territory differentiated sufficiently between the and, supposedly, as a form of deterrence, special situation of persons in need of immigration detention is increasingly being international protection and the broader questioned on practical and functional category of irregular migrants. People are grounds, as well as on human rights/legal also at times detained in criminal facilities, grounds. Politically, too, many countries including maximum security prisons, are facing growing civil opposition to which do not cater for the particular needs the practice of immigration detention. of asylum seekers or other migrants and which, in effect, criminalise them. These It is clear that irregular migration can are worrying trends, not least because the challenge the efficient functioning of asylum latest empirical research shows that not systems in many countries.