Monitoring Immigration Detention – practical manual
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT); UNHCR; International Detention Coalition (IDC)
June 2014; 220 pages

Today, the use of immigration detention as a migration management tool is on the rise in a large number of countries. The detention of asylum-seekers and migrants represents a growing human rights challenge worldwide.

This Monitoring Manual was produced jointly by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the APT and the International Detention Coalition (IDC). It is a step-by-step guide for anyone or any institution carrying out immigration detention visits. It can also be used as a checklist for authorities, detention centre staff and journalists on the standards that need to be applied when asylum-seekers and migrants are detained.

Contents include:
:: Detention in the immigration context
:: Immigration detention: a monitoring methodology
:: What aspects of immigration detention to examine

The principles and standards set out in this Manual are both preventative and corrective in orientation. Monitoring can help prevent human rights violations at either an individual or systemic level, and it can highlight areas that need improvement to ensure the full respect of fundamental rights to dignity and humane treatment. Access to detention facilities is a first step to preventing abuse.

The Manual complements UNHCR’s Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention (2012), and builds on the APT and IDC’s expertise and prolific work in monitoring forms of detention and in advocating for alternatives to detention, respectively.