While open-air migrant camps in Greece or France have attracted much media attention lately, less prominent in the media are the migrant detention centers that exist all over Europe. They carry euphemistic names such as “Immigration Removal Centre” in the UK, “Identification and Expulsion Centres” in Italy or “centers for the internment of foreigners” in Spain. Nevertheless, they should be called prisons, because that’s exactly what they are. They are closed and secured buildings with guards in which detainees are restricted of movement and access to the outside world. But those detained within their walls are not criminals. They are migrants – with or without the status of asylum-seeker – locked up because they attempted to flee to a safer country than their own. The conditions inside these immigration prisons have been criticized by rights organisations concerned by the lack of scrutiny and laws concerning detention centers compared to regular prisons. EU governments are benefiting from a relative lack of regulation concerning immigration detention at the EU level. The European Convention of Human Rights includes in its list of legitimate causes for detention the prevention of unauthorized entry and the…
Thousands of Refugees ‘Imprisoned’ in Immigration Detention Centres Across Europe
March 1, 2016
