Solitary Confinement of Immigration Detainees
Solitary Confinement of Immigration Detainees

Summary/Abstract: As a result of the criminalisation of migration, administratively detained asylum seekers and immigrants often face harsher punishments during detention in comparison with prisoners who have been sentenced for committing a crime. Solitary confinement puts at grave risk the physical and mental integrity of asylum seekers and immigrants. The article reveals existing state practice on imposing solitary confinement from the first-hand experience of the author and examines closely a pending case before the European Court of Human Rights. The case concerns an asylum seeker detained in Bulgaria since October 2006, who has been an object of constant solitary confinement punishment. Comparison is made with existing national rules for disciplinary punishment of convicted persons. The article looks at existing international prison rules with regard to disciplinary punishment and advocates for their non-discriminatory application as minimum standards at immigration detention centres. It also provides an analysis of the international human rights principle of prohibition of torture, inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment in relation to detention conditions. Summary: Solitary confinement is a punishment imposed on prisoners for disciplinary offences in exceptional cases. However it is also applied to administratively detained immigrants. At the immigration detention centre in Sofia, Bulgaria, where the author of the article has been providing legal aid, solitary confinement is internment to an empty cell with a surveillance camera recording 24 hours per day. That cell is called “the isolator”. The article reveals existing state practice on imposing solitary confinement from the first-hand experience of the author and examines closely a pending case before the European Court of Human Rights, Kadzoev v. Bulgaria. It looks at existing prison rules with regard to disciplinary punishment and advocates for their non-discriminatory application as minimum standards at immigration detention centres. It also provides an analysis of the international human rights principle of prohibition of torture, inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment in relation to detention conditions.

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