Refugee Survey Quarterly  45 facilities, including regular jails, at an annual cost of US$1.7 billion.17 In the UK, during 2010 approximately 26,000 people were detained on immigration powers; half of them were asylum applicants.18 Overall, in the EU there is a recorded detention capacity of at least 37,000, and between the years 2000 and 2012 the number of immigration detention centres increased from 324 to 473.19 The proliferation of immigration detention worldwide has gone hand in hand with the adoption of restrictive migration policies such as increased border controls and a stringent return policy, the propagation of anti-migrant rhetoric in the public sphere, and the “criminalisation” of migrants in irregular situations. These trends are observed worldwide and have intensified in the last decade following the post 9/11 securitisation of the migration agenda.20 In the EU more specifically, national legislation in 22 out of 25 Member States punishes unauthorised entry with sanctions, which include imprisonment and often a fine.21 Ten EU Member States also punish irregular stay, with a fine and sometimes imprisonment.22 Sanctions can also be imposed on people who assist migrants in an irregular situation – national legislation in eight EU Member States penalises people who help migrants to stay in the country even if their motivation is not profit driven. The long period of administrative detention (18 months) allowed by the EU Returns Directive is also indicative of the trend to “criminalise” the infringement of immigration laws. Eighteen months of deprivation of personal liberty is comparable to penalties handed out for serious criminal offences in many countries.23 Moreover, migrants and asylum-seekers under administrative detention may also be detained in ordinary prisons, as is the case in Cyprus and the US, where 67 per cent of migrants and asylum-seekers is detained in county and city jails.24 The “criminalisation” of 17 Detention Watch Network, The Influence of the Private Prison Industry in Immigration Detention, Washington, DC, Detention Watch Network, undated, available at: http://bit.ly/1htGvGA (last visited 22 Feb. 2016). 18 N. Tsangarides, The Second Torture: The Immigration Detention of Torture Survivors, London, Medical Justice, 2012, available at: http://bit.ly/1pugQlX (last visited 22 Feb. 2016). 19 Migreurop, Carte Atlas, Migreurop, 2012, available at: http://www.migreurop.org/IMG/pdf/Carte_ Atlas_Migreurop_19122012_Version_francaise_version_web.pdf (last visited 22 Feb. 2016) 20 A. Moscoe, “Not So Normative After All: The Securitization of Migration since 9/11 and the Erosion of Normative Power in Europe”, Carleton Review of International Affairs, 2, 2013; D. Schlentz, Did 9/11 Matter? Securitization of Asylum and Immigration in the European Union in the Period from 1992 to 2008, Oxford, Refugee Studies Centre Working Paper Series No. 56, University of Oxford, 2010. 21 Unauthorised entry can include crossing the border into a country illegally (not from an authorised crossing point), using false travel documents, or legal documents but providing false information in these documents. C. Morehouse & M. Blomfield, Irregular Migration in Europe, Washington, DC, Migration Policy Institute, 2011, available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/TCM-irregular-migrationeurope (last visited 22 Feb. 2016). 22 Irregular stay can be the result of overstaying a visa-free travel period or temporary residence permit; loss of status because of non-renewal of permit for failing to meet residence requirements or breaching conditions of residence; being born into irregularity; absconding during the asylum procedure or failing to leave a host country after a negative decision; a State’s failure to enforce a return decision. See Morehouse & Blomfield, Irregular Migration in Europe. 23 F. Bertin, E. Fontanari & L. Gennari, At the Limen: The Implementation of the Return Directive in Italy, Spain and Cyprus, Project by Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, 2013, available at: http://www.borderline-europe.de/sites/default/files/features/2014_Final_brochure_at-the-limen.pdf (last visited 22 Feb. 2016). 24 A. Kalhan, “Rethinking Immigration Detention”, Columbia Law Review Sidebar, 110, 2010, 42–57; Detention Watch Network, About The U.S. Detention and Deportation System, Washington, DC,