By Human Rights Watch

The 40-page report “‘Nobody Cared, Nobody Listened:’ The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Panama” documents this mass expulsion. Human Rights Watch exposes harsh detention conditions and mistreatment migrants experienced in the United States, along with the denial of due process and the right to seek asylum. It also details migrants’ incommunicado detention in Panama, where authorities kept their phones, blocked visitors, and isolated them from the outside world.

Human Rights Watch, April 24, 2025, p. 40

By Human Rights Watch

The 39-page report, “Injustice By Design: Need for Comprehensive Justice Reform in Libya,” documents how outdated and repressive legislation, lack of fair trial rights, and rampant due process violations urgently need reform. Unsafe conditions for judicial staff, abusive military trials of civilians, and inhumane conditions in prisons compound abuses and entrench impunity.

Human Rights Watch, June 2, 2025, p. 39

By Global Detention Project

  Immigration detention is an important tool of immigration control in Taiwan (also “Taiwan Province of China”), where detainee numbers have steadily risen in recent years. Although conditions in Taiwan’s detention centres have frequently been criticised, they have received little international scrutiny because of China’s opposition to Taiwan’s UN membership. Taiwan also lacks an asylum system, though the need to establish asylum procedures has grown increasingly urgent as the numbers of Hong Kong residents seeking protection have grown.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Detention Project, 2024. 30p.  

By Melanie Griffiths and

Peter William Walsh

This briefing examines immigration detention in the UK. It discusses who is detained, for how long, with what effects, and the financial costs of operating the system.

Key Points Immigration detention is used worldwide by governments to facilitate immigration enforcement, but has negative impacts on detainees’ mental health. The use of immigration detention in the UK hit a high of around 32,000 in 2015. Numbers have been falling since then, with around 16,000 people entering detention in 2023. Around 1,800 people were in immigration detention on 30 June 2024. In mid-2024, the UK had an estimated detention capacity of around 2,200 beds, of which around 77% were occupied. In 2023, the Home Office detained 18 children for immigration-related purposes, down from around 1,100 in 2009. In 2023, 39% of immigration detainees were held for more than 28 days. Release on immigration bail – an alternative to detention where detainees are released into the community – increased from 2010 to 2021 but fell by 2023. In Q2 2024, the average daily cost to hold an individual in immigration detention was £122. In the financial year 2023-24, the Home Office issued 838 compensation payments for unlawful detention, totalling around £12 million.

Oxford, UK: Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, 2024. 18p.