Migration and detentions
Towards a future without mandatory detentions
Background
When we hear the word “mandatory detentions”, we tend to think about jail and prisons, but people affected by this practice go far beyond that. We are talking about immigration centres, psychiatric facilities, substance abuse treatment centres, and other facilities that have held people in compulsory confinement. There is hardly a place in the world safe from mandatory detentions.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many marginalised people were held in unsafe conditions in jails, prisons or immigration centers. Mandatory detention entails particularly harsh consequences for women and children, and its harmful effects on human dignity and social inclusion persist after release.
This session brought to the table the realities that many people across the world face: racism, colonialism, discrimination and inequalities, with most vulnerable groups overrepresented in penitentiary institutions.
Looking ahead, participants explored community-driven alternatives to foster a vision for 2045 with human rights, justice and care at the center.
This three-day experience gathered over 20 speakers and over 300 participants, including community organizers, local and regional leaders and victims of mandatory detention.
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Challenges
- Having a sense of history is key to understanding current challenges. Solutions need to go to the root of racism, of sexism, and of inequalities, to transform the systems of justice.
- The Charter of Local and Sub-National Governments of Africa on Migration, signed by 2018 by 30 cities, firmly opposes migration detention.
- The UCLG Lampedusa Charter Process acknowledges that security-based approaches towards receiving migrant populations – via reception or ‘stay’ centres are inefficient and do not protect human rights. The Charter calls upon territories to actively contribute towards transitioning from border-centered approaches to a people-centred vision of citizenship, underpinned by a sense of community and the notions of dignity, human rights, peace, collective memory and diversity, irrespective of administrative status.
- Drugs decriminalization has been demonstrated to be a starting point towards a more humane and compassionate future.
- Some believe that locking people up in detention facilities makes them safe, but research demonstrates that putting vulnerable communities in confinement has high human and financial costs.
- The #FreeHer campaign is rallying around the United States to demand that the President and State Governors use their pardon power to free women who should be in their home communities, with their families.
- Inquest, in United Kingdom, tells the human stories of those who have died in detention centers, and supports families in changing the narrative that blames victims.
Learn more about the challenges being faced by cities and regions
Responses
- Having a sense of history is key to understanding current challenges. Solutions need to go to the root of racism, of sexism, and of inequalities, to transform the systems of justice.
- The Charter of Local and Sub-National Governments of Africa on Migration, signed by 2018 by 30 cities, firmly opposes migration detention.
- The UCLG Lampedusa Charter Process acknowledges that security-based approaches towards receiving migrant populations – via reception or ‘stay’ centres are inefficient and do not protect human rights. The Charter calls upon territories to actively contribute towards transitioning from border-centered approaches to a people-centred vision of citizenship, underpinned by a sense of community and the notions of dignity, human rights, peace, collective memory and diversity, irrespective of administrative status.
- Drugs decriminalization has been demonstrated to be a starting point towards a more humane and compassionate future.
- Some believe that locking people up in detention facilities makes them safe, but research demonstrates that putting vulnerable communities in confinement has high human and financial costs.
- The #FreeHer campaign is rallying around the United States to demand that the President and State Governors use their pardon power to free women who should be in their home communities, with their families.
- Inquest, in United Kingdom, tells the human stories of those who have died in detention centers, and supports families in changing the narrative that blames victims.
Learn more about other responses and initiatives in terms of Migration:
Towards the Pact
- Community-led solutions are key to making sure that justice, dignity, equality, and human rights protection prevail over inefficient and unfair measures.
- Local and regional governments call the attention of national and international institutions on the impact of mandatory detention in the communities, and to move towards a structural change.
- The international policymaking spheres and processes should consider the needs and perspectives of those who have endured mandatory detention.
- Bringing communities to the decision-making table is the first step to moving forward.
For further information on the topic of Public Service Delivery and its impact on cities and regions, please refer to the related resources included below.
- UCLG’s Live Learning Experience page
- Metropolis’ Cities for Global Health initiative
Frontliners
