The Global Detention Project, based at the Graduate Institute’s Programme for the Study of Global Migration, published two working papers in autumn 2009: Migration and Detention: Mapping the International Legal Terrain by Isabel Ricupero and Michael Flynn, November 2009; and The Privatization of Immigration Detention: Towards a Global View, by Michael Flynn and Cecilia Cannon, September 2009. The two working papers are the first in a series of publications which aim to highlight specific issues linked to migration-related detention.

According to Michael Flynn, founder and lead researcher for the Project, the working papers are a natural progression of the initiative’s work. The Project was created in October 2006 as a limited term research project based at the Graduate Institute's Political Science Department and was originally funded by the Geneva International Academic Network. In 2008, it was moved to the Institute’s Programme for the Study of Global Migration, with Professors David Sylvan and Vincent Chetail serving as project supervisors. The Project’s early work consisted of generating data on detention centres and publishing country reports on its website, which was launched in 2009. The working papers further contribute to the main goals of the Project, which are currently: 1) to provide researchers, advocates and journalists with a measurable and regularly updated baseline for analysing the growth and evolution of detention practices and policies; 2) to encourage scholarship in this often under-studied aspect of the immigration phenomenon; and 3) to facilitate accountability in the treatment of detainees.

The first working paper The Privatization of Immigration Detention: Towards a Global View looks at the complex phenomenon of the detention of asylum seekers and irregular immigrants carried out by government contracted private companies. The paper examines case studies on the privatisation of detention centres in five countries. In its conclusion, the paper describes the motives for and against the privatisation of immigration detention and the effects privatisation can have on detention centres. Michael Flynn, co-author of the paper stated “the paper is a preliminary effort to put this issue on the radar”.

Migration and Detention: Mapping the International Legal Terrain, the Project’s second working paper, is an attempt to list and briefly describe all international treaties, protocols, United Nations instruments, standards and other mechanisms which comprise the legal structure that applies to migration-related detention. One of the aims of the paper is to establish a handbook on known instruments of international law which apply to migration-related detention, according to Mr. Flynn, co-author of the paper. The paper also will serve as a preliminary selection of information that will be used in a database currently under development by the Global Detention Project that will measure countries’ adherence to the listed legal mechanisms. Subsequent working papers to be released will provide information on coding data for individual detention centres.

The Global Detention Project is an inter-disciplinary research endeavour that investigates the role detention plays in states’ responses to global migration, with a special focus on the policies and physical infrastructures of detention.

The Programme for the Study of Global Migration was created in January 2008 under the leadership of Professor Jussi Hanhimäki and is devoted to the interdisciplinary study of global migration. Its mission is to produce cutting edge research and expertise on the causes and impacts of population movements. The main focus of the Programme is on migration linked to armed conflicts, generalised violence, persecution as well as ecological disasters. However, the Programme also concerns itself with the so-called phenomenon of 'economic migration' and its contemporary implications.

Links to the Global Detention Project’s Working Papers can be found below:

The paper Migration and Detention: Mapping the International Legal Terrain, Global Detention Project working paper by Isabel Ricupero and Michael Flynn, November 2009 can be found here.

The paper The Privatization of Immigration Detention: Towards a Global View, Global Detention Project working paper by Michael Flynn and Cecilia Cannon, September 2009 can be found here.

More information on the Global Detention Project can be found here.

More information on the Graduate Institute’s Programme for the Study of Global Migration can be found here.