For over a decade, the GDP has relentlessly pushed states to provide better migration detention data, in particular in the European Union, where Eurostat maintains a wealth of statistics on a range of key immigration enforcement measures—except detention. Until now.
In June, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted proposed reforms to the Migration Statistics Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 862/2007) governing the provision of data by EU states to Eurostat on migration and international protection. The amended regulation also requires states to more frequently report statistics on a host of policies related to returns and asylum as well as related administrative and judicial procedures. Importantly, the amended regulation also calls on Eurostat to establish a “pilot study” to “test the feasibility of new data collections or disaggregations,” including with respect to:
- The number of persons having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such an application as a family member and who: were in detention, disaggregated by duration of stay in detention and by the grounds for detention, or were subject to an administrative or judicial decision or act ordering their detention or an alternative to detention, disaggregated by type of alternative and by the month such decision or act was issued.
- The number of persons in return procedures subject to an administrative or judicial decision or act ordering their detention, further disaggregated by duration of stay in detention, or an alternative to detention, disaggregated by type of alternative, and by the month such decision or act was issued.
