The SADC Regional Network on Alternatives to Detention (ATD) held its first Annual Convening since its establishment on 28 and 29 October 2025 in Banjul, The Gambia, at the margins of the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
Co-organized by IDC and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), this gathering brought together NGOs, human rights defenders, and people with lived experience to advance rights-based migration governance and alternatives to detention in Southern Africa. The convening offered a space for peer learning, advocacy planning, and shaping regional priorities to promote humane, community-based alternatives to detention.
Background
The Southern African region continues to experience a significant rise in mixed and irregular migration flows. Though less documented than other migration corridors, for example, the Southern route from East and the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region towards South Africa running through Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia saw an estimated 80,000 movements in 2023 alone. Journeys in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region are often driven by increasingly difficult economic, environmental, and security conditions in countries of origin, and they expose people on the move to significant risks, underscoring the urgent need for rights-based approaches to migration governance. A key trend observed across the SADC region is the growing criminalization and securitization of migration, sometimes fueled by xenophobia, leading to restrictive migration policies and an increased reliance on immigration detention and other criminalization measures. In several countries, irregular entry or stay is criminalized and punishable by imprisonment, resulting in the widespread detention of migrants and refugees.