It is a busy month for Human Rights organisations involved with immigration detention work in Africa.
IDC members will be providing input to the 56th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights; the 25th Ordinary Session of the African Council of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child – which will be attended by IDC for the first time – and IDC will also be running our annual Africa Regional Workshop from the 29th – 30th of April in Nairobi, Kenya.
Building on the momentum created by campaigners all over the continent who are part of the Global Campaign to End Child Detention, IDC members will discuss the successes of their various International Day of Action activities in 2014 and plans to take the movement forward in 2015.
In order to ensure quality data is available to decision makers, a region-wide mapping project will be launched at the Regional Workshop and continue to be carried out by IDC Members throughout mid-2015.
These activities are timely with ongoing media reports of human trafficking victims being detained by traffickers around the Horn of Africa, as well as refugees and asylum seekers being detained in countries of first asylum. A recent announcement in Israel will likely result in ‘voluntary’ removal of asylum seekers and refugees to third countries in Africa. Details of the arrangements are yet to be publicly released, although it appears likely they will officially include Uganda and Rwanda, having previously included Sudan.