This chapter offers a critical evaluation of the concept and applicationof global carceral archipelagos designed as punitive barriers to refugees.With a focus on policies and practices in Australia for over two decades,the chapter shows how more recently, the European Union (EU) and theUnited Kingdom (UK) are also adopting similar strategies to Australia ina pattern of Western countries turning their backs on their human rightsobligations. The histories of colonial practices of the racialisation of certainminorities within and outside nation-state borders are an importantaspect of understanding contemporary bordering regimes that excluderefugees. The chapter discusses examples of resistance, as well as alternativepolitics emerging from refugees who have suffered from the carceralborder complex, drawing on creative and collaborative work and practices.