IDC ends the 2026 International Migration Review Forum with significant wins for migrants
For a child, migration can mean being held in prison-like conditions, missing school and being separated from friends and family.
For a woman who has fled violence, it can mean being placed in a system that doesn’t recognise trauma, pregnancy, care responsibilities or the risk of further abuse.
For people moving across borders, it can mean being treated first as a case file, a risk score from an algorithm or an enforcement target, instead of as a person with rights, dignity and a future.
This is why global migration policy matters. It can sound distant from everyday life, but decisions made in places like the UN shape what governments are expected to do when people arrive at borders, seek safety, need support or face detention.
In May 2026, governments, UN agencies, local authorities, civil society, migrant leaders and others met in New York for the International Migration Review Forum, known as the IMRF.
The forum reviews progress on the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration, a 2018 agreement setting out shared commitments on migration governance.
IDC went to the IMRF with a clear goal: to safeguard and advance migrant rights. And at a time when many governments are moving towards more restrictive and punitive migration policies, we helped secure important progress.
Keeping children out of immigration detention and promoting alternatives to detention for all
Children should never be detained because of their migration status.
At the IMRF, IDC and our partners helped secure stronger global backing for this principle. One of the clearest wins was Paragraph 53 of the Progress Declaration, which asks the UN Secretary-General to look at what governments are doing to keep children out of immigration detention, what is getting in the way, and what practical steps are needed next.
This means this issue now has a stronger place in the global migration agenda. Governments have agreed that ending child immigration detention needs further attention, and the UN will follow up on progress – this is a major win for children’s rights.
We are unequivocal: detention harms children’s mental health, disrupts education, damages family life and breaches their human rights. Immigration detention is a form of violence against children and should never take place.
The work now is to turn this global commitment into changes in national law, policy and practice, so that children and families are supported in the community instead of being placed in detention.
Making migration policy work for women, girls and gender diverse people
Another important outcome was the defence of gender-responsive migration policy – meaning migration policy that recognises the specific risks faced by women, girls and gender-diverse people.
Migration policies affect women in specific ways. And at a time when women’s rights and gender equality are under pressure in many parts of the world, IDC was focused on making sure migrant women and girls were not pushed backwards.
At the IMRF, this meant helping protect language in the Progress Declaration on women’s participation in migration decisions, protection from violence against migrant women and girls, access to services and other areas.
It also meant working with partners to keep women, girls and gender-diverse people visible in discussions on detention and alternatives.
Across multiple IDC side events and discussions, we helped make the case that migration systems must recognise the different risks women face, including violence, exploitation, family separation, pregnancy-related needs, care responsibilities, trafficking risks, and barriers to healthcare, justice and documentation.
Digital tools that support people, not surveil them
Technology was another major theme at the IMRF.
Digital tools are already being used in migration systems, including in visa processing, border control, identity systems, data collection, risk assessments, surveillance, case management and detention. Used carefully, technology can support access to information and services. Used badly, it can deepen discrimination, expand surveillance and make harmful decisions harder to challenge.
IDC helped ensure digital technologies were addressed in the Progress Declaration, giving us a stronger basis to call for safeguards against surveillance, bias and harmful decision-making in migration systems. We also co-organised an event on how digital tools can affect whether migrants are watched, profiled, detained or denied access to rights, clarifying that the use of electronic tagging and monitoring affects the rights of migrants.
Technology should support migrants to access information, protection and services. It must not make migration systems more punitive, opaque or dangerous.
Creating safer pathways to protection
Safe and regular pathways are central to ending immigration detention.
When people have no safe way to move, seek protection, reunite with family, access work or get secure legal status, they are often pushed into more dangerous journeys and more precarious situations. This can increase the risk of exploitation, violence, trafficking, family separation and detention.
Pathways can mean physical routes – like safer ways to travel across borders. They can also mean regular routes – like having clear ways to apply for residence, legal protection, reunite with family, access work or receive support in the community while a migration case is being resolved.
At the IMRF, IDC helped highlight why safer pathways matter. Governments and organisations are increasingly looking at migration across whole routes, from the places people leave, through the countries they travel across, to the places where they seek safety or stability.
This ‘route-based approach’ can help identify where people face danger and need support. But during official discussions, IDC made clear that any approach must be about rights and protection, not containment. It must not be used to stop people moving, block access to asylum or push people into more dangerous situations. Alongside the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Red Cross, IDC is a consortium partner of the Pathways to Protection project. Funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, P2P is a five-year programme focused on strengthening the protection and rights of people moving along the Mediterranean migration routes, where risks can change quickly from one country to the next.
For people on the ground, this can mean the difference between being left in limbo and having a clear, supported route towards safety, stability and community life.
Turning global commitments into action
Global commitments only matter if they lead to change in people’s lives. That is why IDC’s work at the IMRF focused on the final text, but also on pledges, partnerships and follow-up.
The next step is to turn these commitments into practical change: following up on the Progress Declaration, supporting national implementation of pledges, advancing safe and regular pathways, preventing child detention, defending gender-responsive migration policy, and making sure technology is governed by human rights.
Every commitment made at the UN must be judged by what changes for people on the ground: whether a child avoids detention, whether a family stays together, whether a woman can access safety and support, and whether a person seeking protection is treated with dignity.
At the IMRF, IDC helped secure stronger global backing for those changes. Now, the task is to make them real.
