Arbitrary detention of asylum seekers: a comparison of some recent practice from Italy and the UK

Public Seminar Series Trinity term 2014. Dr Daniel Wilsher (City University London) & Francesca Cancellaro (Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna). Recorded on 28 May 2014 at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford The detention of asylum seekers is always particularly controversial. The Saadi v UK decision of the Strasbourg Court was much criticised for condoning administrative detention of asylum seekers. It did, however, impose apparently strict legal constraints on such detention. Nevertheless, in that time, executive practice in Europe has evolved in ways that arguably further undermine these constraints. This seminar considers practices in the UK under the detained fast-track system and in Italy on the island of Lampedusa to assess the current state of detention and its compliance with the rule of law.