Asia Pacific Immigration Detention Workshop Report 2012

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Immigration Detention Working Group

Asia Pacific Regional Workshop

Workshop Report

23-24 October 2012, Bangkok

Immigration Detention Working Group

Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network

Bangkok


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This workshop report offers an outline of the main issues covered throughout the course of the two

day regional workshop of the Immigration Detention Working Group (IDWG) of the Asia Pacific

Refugee Rights Network (APRRN). The workshop was convened in collaboration with the

International Detention Coalition (IDC), in Bangkok, October 2012.

The workshop was generously supported by the International Detention Coalition, and APRRN.

Thanks are owed to Grant Mitchell, Rakinder Reehal, Vivienne Chew, Brian Barbour, and Imran

Khan, Danielle Grigsby and Anoop"Sukumaran for their assistance in the preparation of this report.


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1. Introduction 4

2. Background 5

3. Main themes

Regional context: detention in Asia Pacific 6

Mapping priority populations, roles, and capacity needs 7

Site Visits 9

Model and project development 13

4. Conclusion 14

5. Evaluation 14


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Introduction

This report offers an outline of the main issues covered throughout the course of the two dayregional workshop of the Immigration Detention Working Group, of the Asia Pacific Refugee RightsNetwork (APRRN). The workshop was convened in collaboration with the International Detention

Coalition (IDC), in Bangkok, October 2012.

The workshop, and the broader vision to end immigration detention in the Asia Pacific region,responds to the need to address the impacts of detention on refugees, asylum seekers, andmigrants, and to ensure the protection of their rights. To this end, the key objectives of theworkshop were:

1. Developing alternatives to immigration detention and monitoring models in

the region2. Developing priorities, models and messages for regional protection

Forty NGOs from twelve countries came together in Bangkok, developing alternatives toimmigration detention, monitoring model plans, and building on the action plans developedtogether with the UNHCR Regional Office over the past eighteen months. Regional protectionissues were also explored.

A diverse selection of participants contributed to the discussions, and an overview ofdevelopments to date was made by Grant Mitchell (IDC), and Anoop Sukumaran (APRRN).

The UNHCR Regional Office and IOM presented for the final session of the workshop.

Ten national project plans were developed, focusing on priority populations affected by immigrationdetention (e.g. children, prolonged cases, stateless persons). See Appendix 3.

The 2-year project plans focus particularly on developing mechanisms to prevent unnecessaryimmigration detention, community-based alternatives to detention, and detention monitoringmodels. Key roles, services, coordination, monitoring, and advocacy strategies were identified.

Some of the key project plan focal points included:

Developing alternatives to detention pilots for unaccompanied minors and vulnerablegroups

Developing good practice models for community reception and prevention of theimmigration detention of children

Undertaking mapping, monitoring and advocacy across the region

Further developing the campaign to end the immigration detention of children

IDC and APRRN will incorporate these project plans into a broader regional work plan, identifyingkey capacity and resource priorities and activities required over the coming two years. UNHCRcommitted to supporting a regional immigration detention workshop in 2013.

The workshop was generously supported and funded by IDC and APRRN.


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Background

Civil society in the Asia Pacific region has been working consistently and collaboratively over the

past 4 years through the Immigration Detention Working Group (IDWG) of the Asia Pacific Refugee

Rights Network (APRRN) to develop identified shared concerns, priorities and action plans at thenational, sub-regional and national levels with a focus on two core goals:

1. Ending detention by encouraging release, alternatives and minimizing the use

of detention

2. Improving conditions and protection and access to justice

This work has emerged in response to the growing impact of immigration detention on

refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants throughout the region. Simultaneously, there havebeen discussions about increasing protection bilaterally and through the Regional CooperationFramework (RCF).

The main aims of the workshop were thus to bring together members of APRRN and IDC whohave worked actively on immigration detention and regional protection issues, as well as keystakeholders. It was envisaged that this would stimulate discussion around the topic, create a

space for critical reflection, and more importantly engagement on effective solutions to endimmigration detention in the region.

The workshop enabled participants to begin the process of developing two year project plans

to meet the two key objectives, in line with discussions and decisions made at the Asia PacificConsultations on Refugee Rights (APCRR) 4 in Seoul, August, 2011.

Finalised project plans encompass the agreed regional priorities over the course of the past 4years which remain central to the projects to be developed at the sub-regional and national

levels.

The sessions were broken four sub-regional and thematic group break-out groups: Regionalprotection, South East Asia, South Asia, and East Asia.

Attendees reviewed the IDCs 5 Step NGO Advocacy Guide on developing alternatives toimmigration detention, which can be found here: http://idcoalition.org/cap/ngo/ , and completed

an online Regional Capacity Building survey in advance of the workshop (See Appendix 2).


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Main Themes

Regional context: detention in Asia Pacific

The work of the Immigration Detention Working Group (IDWG) in the Asia Pacific has includedregional, sub-regional, and national consultations, as well as capacity building and action planning

activities.

There have been four regional APCRR civil society consultations on immigration detention, oneregional consultation in Bangkok (2010) on immigration detention with UNHCR, two sub-regional

consultations in South East Asia (Thailand, 2010), and South Asia (Bangladesh, 2011), in additionto one regional civil society immigration detention workshop (Malaysia, 2011).

IDWG has identified these core regional priorities:

1. Detention monitoring

2. Alternatives to Immigration Detention (ATD)

3. Campaign to end the immigration detention of children

Within these priorities, the group has recognised sub-regional priorities for South East Asia, SouthAsia, and East Asia.

South East Asia

Advocating for new legislation to ensure safeguards, right to asylum, and release

Ensuring existing legislation implements safeguards, protection, and alternatives to

detention Strengthen and expand existing release opportunities and models

South Asia

Mapping legal and administrative gaps, sensitization, and training

Monitoring detention and fact finding

Increasing access to justice and release

East Asia

Expanding the campaign to end child detention

Developing ATD for prolonged detainees and vulnerable individuals

Develop a detention monitoring model

Detention analysis and project planning encompassed the following key activities during the

workshop:

1. Prioritising key populations2. Protection needs analysis for target population

3. Capacity and role analysis4. Site visits

5. Model and project development


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Mapping priority populations, roles, and capacity needs

With a sound understanding of the regional and sub-regional situation on detention, the workshopmoved forward to mapping who the priority populations were.

Step oneThe regional group and the sub-regional groups discussed their concerns about how detention isused, which group is most vulnerable in immigration detention, and which group the governmentmay be more open to exploring ATD for. The activity resulted in the identification of three target

groups.

Step twoThe second step was to carry out a protection needs analysis, considering the particular protectionneeds of the priority groups identified, the issues which that group may face both in detention andin the community, and the support required to prevent or address these issues. The activityresulted in the identification of protection gaps for the target groups.

Step threeOnce the key protection gaps were identified, the third step was to carry out a capacity and roleanalysis. The discussion focused on identifying key stakeholders for addressing protection gaps,who is currently working on those issues and providing which services, and what additionalresources would be needed to fill the protection gaps (local, national, regional, or international).

The activity resulted in the identification key stakeholders.

Target groups and protection gaps

Target Groups Protection Gaps

South EastAsia

1. Children (UAM)

2. Physical/ mental illness

In detention: access to healthcare, access toeducation, separation from adult relatives,protection from abuse, protection from being sold

into adoption, long-term psychological care, accessto justice and legal representation, access to play,

adequate nutrition.

In the community: access to healthcare, education,legal guardianship, poor accommodation, arrest,

harassment, limited freedom of movement,vulnerability to exploitation, child labour.

In detention: Lack of screening upon detention.

Thailandhas process for reporting & seekingmedical assistance, on site and on call care.

Referrals to off-site psychologist, but languagebarriers.Indonesia has a visiting doctor once a week, no on-call care, and to the discretion of staff when help issought.

Malaysia has no unfettered access to medical care.All down to the discretion of the staff, other

detainees provide care.


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3. Prolonged detention

In the community: similar issues. Varying degreesof access depending on location, NGO support,resources, community organization. Little supportfor chronic illness.

South Asia 1. Children (UAM)

2. Women

3. Stateless

Legal aid, access to interpreters, medical care,psychosocial support, access to education, forced

labour, sexual exploitation, social stigma, adequatenutrition.

Vulnerable to trafficking, sexual exploitation,

harassment, poor healthcare, psychosocialsupport, social stigma, adequate nutrition.

Lack of adequate healthcare of nutrition, prolongeddetention, indefinite detention, lack of access torefugee protection mechanisms.

East Asia 1. Children (UAM)

2. Torture survivors

3. Prolonged/ airport cases

Funding, psychological counseling, unlimited

discretion, judicial review, adequate detentionfacilities, access to detainees, shelters,

caseworkers, ID cards, legal aid providers,interpreters, special protection systems for UAM

and vulnerable people, family unity, access toasylum at airport, security.


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Key Stakeholders

Groups discussed which stakeholders were most/ least influential and most/least supportive.

South East Asia

UNHCR, IOM, INGOs,SUAKA, JRS, Media,Special Rapporteurs& UN Mechanisms,

CBOs, NHCR,enforcement, religious

groups

Enforcement,immigration,embassies,

department of socialaffairs, home minister,

ministry of health,local government,UNICEF, royalty,

media, SUHAKAM

UNHCR, onlinemedia, advocacy

NGOs, service NGOs

Mainstream media,welfare, women, and

childrens ministry

Most

Most

Least

Least


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South Asia

Judiciary, celebrities,NGOs, UNHCR,Media, political

parties, parliamentarystanding committees,lawyers, NHRC, army

Army, home office,ministry of law and

justice, media, police,political parties

Religious leadersReligious leaders,

NHRC

Most

Most

Least

Least


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East Asia

APRRN in Taiwan,Civil Society, MPs,

Media in Korea,UNHCR, JFBA,

JLNK, Japan MOJ,KBA, Media in Japan,Japan General Public

Japan MOJ, KoreaMOJ, Japan MOFA,

KBA, Media in Japan,Korea General Public,Japan General Public

APRRN, IDC, KoreaMOFA "

Most

Most

Least

Least


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Site Visits

Participants divided into three groups to attend afternoon site visits to the offices of Asylum AccessThailand, Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific, and Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation. The

aim of the site visits was to encourage creative and original thinking on the issues faced in different

regions, and to provide participants with the opportunity to practically apply the issues that havebeen discussed. Participants reported that it was powerful to see the work that is beingundertaken, learn about the processes which enable this, and to hear personal stories.

Here is a brief description of each organization and what the visit entailed:

Asylum Access Thailand provides legal counsel and representation to refugees seeking asylumin refugee status determination proceedings conducted by the UN refugee agency. Clients come

from over 20 different countries. While the majority are from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, there are alsoclients from Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Viet Nam, Cote dIvoire, and many other countries. To address thecritical need for legal aid in dozens of languages, AAT also train refugees as legal interpreters.Participants were able to meet with interpreters who are refugees, and reported that they were

struck by the lack of domestic protection mechanisms.

Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific has a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf

of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS undertakes services at national and regionallevels with the support of an international office in Rome. Thirty years after the genesis of JRS AsiaPacific, the work has grown to assist forcibly displaced persons in eight countries: Thailand,Cambodia, Timor Leste, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.Participants reported on a successful visit which included meeting with the Country Director for

Thailand, the legal services team, and receiving a briefing on the urban refugee project. Attendeeswere also able to meet 6 refugees.


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Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation has a mission to promote and protect the humanrights of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in Thailand and in the ASEAN region.The areas of focus for TCR are health care, education, income generation/livelihood, legal statusand documentation, and policy and legal advocacy. TCR undertakes local, regional, and nationaladvocacy.

Photos used with permission from Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR)

Model and project development

Priority project plans were then developed, and these are outlined in Appendix 3.


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Conclusion

APRRN and the IDC remain committed to providing opportunities for civil society actors to work

together strategically with the aim at reducing and eventually ending immigration detention as a

standard and growing practice in the Asia Pacific Region.

APRRN and IDC will work together to follow-up with the various sub-regional and country-specific

project plans, providing opportunities for attendees to reconvene and follow-up on strategic

advocacy, campaign, project and capacity building iniatiatives.

For more information, or to join the Immigration Detention Working Group, please contact the

APRRN Secretariat at [email protected].

Participant Evaluation

Evaluation was sent after the close of conference in electronic form. We received a 41% response

rate, significantly higher than statistically average for online, post-conference survey, thus

maintaining its relevance as a reflection on overall conference perception. Overall, the faciliation

and training methods used and workshop value received an 87% satisfaction rate.

Select participant comments:

It helps each person to think strategically and make an achievable/realistic action plan.

Since we encounter the incidences of immigration detention quite often, the knowledge and skills

gained during this workshop would be extremely useful for our own work at domestic context.

The workshop has motivated me to speak up against detention and hope my colleagues will join in

the fight.

Asia Pacific Immigration Detention Workshop Report 2012

Documents

Transcript of Asia Pacific Immigration Detention Workshop Report 2012