ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on administrative detention because the vast majority of people confined for status-related reasons are placed in civil detention. It explains the broader discussion of immigration detention, advancing an overall definition of immigration detention and demonstrating how standard notions of the practice can overlook the role of non-state actors. The chapter then introduces a set of limit cases that provide concrete examples of how various non-state actors have become entangled in detention operations. It explores that the deprivation of liberty of migrants and asylum seekers often takes place in venues that occupy a grey area of state authority. The chapter proposes defining deprivation of liberty as 'forcibly imposed confinement within an enclosed space'. It then concludes with an assessment of the broader significance of non-state actor involvement in detention, in particular with respect to accountability. The concepts of citizenship and status both imply the existence of a sovereign power that can either grant or retract such qualities.
