to order detention.97 This means that the possibility for governmental bias looms large. In 16
States, there is no automatic judicial review of detention. Rather, migrants and asylum seekers
must apply to administrative courts for review.98
Both removal and asylum detainees must be kept in specialized facilities, which must be
different than those for ordinary prisoners. In a 2014 Court of Justice of the European Union case,
the Court ruled that “absence of specialized facilities in one part of Member States’ territory does
not justify using prisons, if specialized facilities are available in other part of its territory.”99
Problems arise because there is uncertainty and non-uniformity in the meaning of “specialized
facilities.” Despite the ruling, many countries continue to use ordinary prisons to detain migrants.
For example, Germany uses prisons, Greece uses police stations, and Austria uses police
detention centers.100 States may attempt to disguise such uses of prisons, to which they designate
administrative officials or extraordinary prisoners. It is especially important to note that some
States do not have the proper capacities and facilities; detention centers tend to be insufficient
and cannot be adapted for long-term detention. Pursuant to a report to the EU, detainees are
mainly held in specialized facilities. However, such statistics must be read with caution, since
they lack academic scope, as they are typically created by each State’s Ministry of Interior
without supplemental or external institutional research support.101 Academic scope is significant
in providing impartial facts and for avoiding bias from the reporting countries, which could
result in skewed, more favorable results.
97
EUROPEAN MIGRATION NETWORK, The Use of Detention and Alternatives to Detention in the Context of
Immigration Policies, (2014), 24, accessible at http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-wedo/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/emnstudies/emn_study_detention_alternatives_to_detention_synthesis_report_en.pdf
98
Id. at 25
99
Case C-474/13, Thi Ly Pham v. Stadt Scheinfurt, Amt fur Meldewesen und Statistik, 2014 E.C.R. 2096.
100
EUROPEAN MIGRATION NETWORK, supra note 99 at 28-9.
101
Izabella Majcher, Immigration detention in Europe: What are the facts? A new European Migration Network
Study, EU LAW ANALYSIS (Dec. 24, 2014, 1:27 AM), http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/12/immigrationdetention-in-europe-what.html
30
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents