Critics have been warily watching the increase in the number of asylum seekers who are detained in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy. Human rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (UCLU) have been seriously concerned with the detention of persons fleeing persecution because, among other reasons, it is at odds with the United Nations Convention on Refugees. The authors argue that a culture of control is pervading countries around the world, stoked by the terrorist attacks of September 11th and conservative criminological thought that marginalizes those seeking asylum and casts them as at least outsiders if not full-fledged criminals. The main aspects of the culture of control are enumerated and the practice of detaining asylum seekers in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy are examined in turn. The implications of this detention practice on worldwide human rights is considered as the authors argue that harsh criminal justice practices, such as detention, have come to be viewed as rational within a culture of control that casts asylum seekers as outsiders and thus, people to be feared. In closing, the authors contend that some aspects of the war on terror involve social control rather than crime control, leading to an array of human rights abuses. Notes, references