The Council of Europe (CoE) recently drafted a proposal aimed at regulating the administrative detention of migrants, a practice that is commonly used to control migration flaws, even though it should be regarded as a measure of last resort.

What is administrative detention?

Administrative detention is a restriction of personal freedom based on an administrative decision. Namely, it is a detention that is not conceived as a punishment, as there is no crime, but as a means of control.

There are about 600,000 migrants detained each year in Europe, of whom over 40,000 are unaccompanied minors.

This practice have been frequently criticized by many NGOs committed to safeguarding human rights: immigration should not be dealt with through restrictions and repression, but rather through social policies.

Nevertheless, as administrative detention is a practice unlikely to be abandoned, it is essential for it to be regulated at the EU level. Therefore, the effort of the CoE in drafting the "European rules on the administrative detention of migrants" is to be regarded as a first step towards the protection of human rights that too often get violated inside detention center because of the lack of a proper legal framework.

IDC statement & CILD's position

As a consequence of its long-term commitment in the field of immigration policies and migrants' rights safeguard, CILD has already signed a joint statement with the International Detention Coalition, in order to suggest the CoE to adopt an approach focused on rights' respect and the use of alternatives to detention rather than one modeled on criminal justice.

In addition to this, CILD and NGOs such as A Buon Diritto, Antigone, Avvocati per Niente, Naga and Progetto Diritti have joined forces to submit critical notes on the proposal to the attention of the CoE, which specifically opened up to consultation with civil society.

These notes aim to set a specific focus on the following crucial elements:

• management of facilities for administrative detention need to be strictly public;
• there must be a fixed length for detention;
• detention can never be applied to minors or people belonging to other vulnerable categories;
• life inside detention facilities needs to be as close to normal as possible, rather than being similar to prison, with isolation and restrictions on outside communication;
• independent monitoring bodies need to have access to every place of restriction.

The next steps

The objective of the CoE is to approve a definitive regulation by 2018. The objective of CILD and its partner organizations is for that regulation to assume a different prospective and ensure that fundamental rights can never be violated.