Detention
© UNHCR
The detention of asylum-seekers and refugees has become commonplace in a number of countries and has serious lasting effects on individuals and families. UNHCR is concerned about the growing use of immigration detention, particularly of children. We address these practices through our 'Global Strategy - Beyond Detention 2014-2019', which aims to support governments to make the detention of asylum-seekers an exceptional rather than routine practice.
Under the Global Strategy, we will work with governments, international and national non-governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders to address some of the main challenges and concerns around governmental detention policies and practices.
The three main goals of the strategy are to
- End the detention of children
- Ensure that alternatives to detention are available in law and implemented in practice
- Ensure that conditions of detention where detention is necessary and unavoidable meet international standards by, inter alia, securing access to places of immigration detention for UNHCR and/or our partners and carrying out regular monitoring.
The Global Strategy will be implemented at country and regional level, through the development of specific national plans of action. These will include a set of specific actions and initiatives that would need to be developed in order to achieve the overall global goals, including advocacy, awareness-raising and campaigning, cooperation and capacity-building, strengthening partnerships, information sharing, data collection and reporting, research and monitoring.
UNHCR has identified a number of countries to work with initially to revisit detention practices and to strengthen alternatives to detention, including Hungary, Indonesia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Thailand, UK and Zambia. UNHCR plans to expand this group of countries over the coming five years.
Key document: Detention Guidelines
National Actions Plans
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Canada
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Hungary
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Indonesia
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Israel
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Lithuania
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Malaysia
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Malta
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Mexico
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Thailand
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - United Kingdom
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - United States
- Beyond Detention - National Action Plan - Zambia
Beyond detention
Alternatives to Detention
- Second Global Roundtable on Reception and Alternatives to Detention, Summary Deliberations, April 2015 4 Sep 2015
- UNHCR, Options Paper 1: Options for governments on care arrangements and alternatives to detention for children and families, 2015 25 Jun 2015
- UNHCR, Options Paper 2: Options for governments on open reception and alternatives to detention, 2015 25 Jun 2015
