In the lead up to World Refugee Day, Sunday 20th June, 2010, the IDC has prepared a media statement urging governments to stop the detention of refugees and asylum seekers and to work together with UN and civil society to ensure their protection:
There has also been a disturbing and growing trend in the past year of industrialized countries funding, pressuring or providing incentives to neighboring countries to detain asylum seekers. In some places people seeking protection have been returned or ‘pushed-back’ to countries that are not signatories to the Refugee Convention, placing refugees at risk of being returned to danger.
Domestic and regional detention is not a solution. There is evidence that detention is not an effective deterrent of asylum seekers. Punitive detention policies fail to consider the conditions that force people to flee their homes. They further traumatize refugees fleeing persecution, torture and conflict.
Deterrence policies shift the burden to neighboring countries. It encourages harsh and harmful border policies that do not resolve the issue of irregular migration and people fleeing for protection…..These issues must be tackled through international, regional and national cooperation, within a framework of refugee protection.
