On 29 September, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Portugal held the Workshop on Alternatives to Immigration Detention, as part of the project " Mainstreaming Human Rights in Administrative Detention Centres”.

This workshop provided an exceptional opportunity to analyse immigration detention from a theoretical and practical point of view, as well as to strengthen the debate around the need to ensure non-custodial alternatives to detention due to one' immigration status. Throughout the event, participants stressed that immigration detention is a measure to be applied as a last resort, in exceptional situations and for the shortest period of time, free from arbitrariness, respecting the principles of necessity and proportionality, applied by a judge and periodically reviewed.

During the event, best practices present in other countries were also presented and ways to implement them in the national context were discussed. Finally, the participants carried out a mapping for the promotion of alternatives to detention in the context of immigration in Portugal. This activity enabled the active participation of the various institutions present, which besides analysing the existing challenges in the advancement of the topic, proposed solutions that could overcome such challenges. The contributions of the various participants will be used in the mapping report on alternatives to immigration detention in Portugal, which is being produced under this project.

The event took place in the auditorium of the Lisbon Urban Information Centre and counted with the participation of the Director-General of Justice Policy of the Ministry of Justice, the Coordinator of the National Preventive Mechanism, the President of the Judicial Court of the Judicial District of Lisbon, IOM experts from the Geneva and Brussels offices, the Regional Coordinator for Europe of the International Detention Coalition, as well as members of the Social Security Institute, Jesuit Refugee Service, United Nations Children´s Fund, High Commissioner for Migrations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portuguese Council for Refugees, Portuguese Bar Association and researchers from NOVA University of Lisbon.

In this sense, the event was a significant opportunity for reflection among all relevant actors in this topic to seek solutions in line with the provisions of objective 13 of the Global Compact for Migration, which encourages governments to use detention only as a last resort and to work towards finding non-custodial alternatives for migration purposes, and in other applicable human rights standards.

The project is co-funded by the by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the Immigration and Borders Service.”