2012 Annual Report

We have seen the massive increase in the use, building and legislating on immigration detention globally, including privatization, criminalization and extra-territorialisation of detention as a first resort over the last year. The impact of this on children, the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups has alarmed our members, with detention often in poor conditions, prolonged and often with little or no access to asylum procedures or judicial review of their detention.

On the other hand however, we have seen an increased move away from detention as a first resort, with a number of states reviewing their detention policies, avoiding the detention of vulnerable groups and introducing alternatives to immigration detention.