7 1. Who is detained? Centering our analysis on detained asylum The U.S. and EU detain a wide variety of with similar reasons for migrating and noncitizens. This includes both long-term similar immigration statuses are treated residents across contexts. and new arrivals. seekers allows us to compare how people While detention harms all migrants, this report Asylum seekers arrive at the borders of the focuses on asylum seekers for practical and U.S. and the EU seeking protection. 4Across legal reasons. The practical reason is that the EU, more than one million people asylum is the main form of immigration submitted applications for international relief available to people who arrive at the protection in 2023. 5 The most common EU’s external borders without prior countries of origin were Syria, Afghanistan, permission. The same is true in the U.S., Turkey, where asylum seekers make up a large Bangladesh. portion of people in detention. The legal 800,000 people applied for asylum in reason is that the right to seek asylum in the 2022. 7 Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras, and U.S. and EU shares a common foundation: Haiti were among the most common international law protections for refugees.3 countries of origin for those filing asylum 1 2 Venezuela, 6 Colombia, and In the U.S., more than In the U.S. context, we use the term “asylum seekers” in this report to include those seeking three related forms of protection under U.S. law for people who face a risk of persecution or torture in their home country: asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. For a discussion of these related forms of protections, see American Immigration Council and National Immigrant Justice Center, “The Difference Between Asylum and Withholding of Removal” (Oct. 2020), available at https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/the_difference_between_asylum_a nd_withholding_of_removal.pdf; Aruna Sury, “Qualifying for Relief under the Convention Against Torture,” Immigrant Legal Resource Center (Nov. 2023), available at https://tinyurl.com/y85ywjb4 (last accessed June 24, 2024). In the EU context, we use asylum seekers to refer to anyone who has applied for or expressed their desire to apply for international protection, an umbrella category of protection for people who face a risk of persecution or serious harm in their home countries. EU law defines international protection as “refugee status” and “subsidiary protection” as defined by Articles 2(d) and 2(f) of the Qualification Directive. Council Directive 2011/95/EU, art 2(a), 2011 O.J. (L 337/9) (hereinafter “Qualification Directive”). 2 See Human Rights First, “‘I am a Prisoner Here’: Biden Administration Policies Lock Up Asylum Seekers” (Apr. 21, 2022), p. 3, available at https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/im-a-prisoner-here-biden-administrationpolicies-lock-up-asylum-seekers/ (hereinafter “HRF Report”). 3 See the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1976 Protocol. U.N. General Assembly (“UNGA”), “Convention relating to the Status of Refugees” (July 1951), available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/instrumentsmechanisms/instruments/protocol-relating-status-refugees; UNGA, “Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees” (Jan. 1967), available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/instrumentsmechanisms/instruments/protocol-relating-status-refugees. 4 See HIAS, “The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, Explained” (Feb. 13, 2024), available at https://hias.org/news/eu-pact-migration-and-asylum-explained/. Note, this reference does not include the more than four million Ukrainians who were granted immediate protection under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive. See Migration Policy Institute, “Ukrainians in the EU: What is Next After the Temporary Protection Directive” (Mar. 2024), available at https://www.migrationpolicy.org/multimedia/ukrainians-euwhat-next-after-temporary-protection-directive. 5 See European Union Agency for Asylum, “Latest Asylum Trends 2023” (Feb. 28, 2024), p. 6, available at https://euaa.europa.eu/publications/latest-asylum-trends-2023-annual-analysis. 6 See id., p. 8. 7 See Eileen Sullivan, “Asylum in America, by the Numbers,” N.Y. TIMES, (Nov. 21, 2023), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/us/politics/migrant-crisis-border-asylum.html. 1 Immigration Detention Across Borders Detention of Asylum Seekers in the United States and the European Union