Alternatives to detention: building a culture of cooperation Evaluation of two-year engagement-based alternative to immigration detention pilot projects in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Poland

By  Eiri Ohtani

The three alternative to detention (ATD) pilots provided case management to 126 individuals with irregular immigration status. 86% remained engaged, 12% disengaged or absconded and 2% were forcibly removed. 25% achieved case resolution, with a permanent or temporary migration outcome. ‣ Consistently across the two evaluations in 2018 and 2020, it has been shown that the case management has had a positive impact on individuals’ ability and capacity to work towards case resolution and can help them to stay engaged in migration processes. Case management had at least some impact, and in many areas a huge impact, on a wide range of areas of individual wellbeing and engagement. 99% of individuals had improved ability to participate in informed decision making and 96% had improved ability to engage with the immigration procedures over time. ‣ The positive impact of case management through the pilots can be more confidently asserted in this second evaluation due to the much larger size of the sampled data: client summary sheets of 99 out of 126 clients (79%) were examined in detail in 2020, as opposed to 31 out of 93 clients (33%) in 2018. ‣ A wider range of data examined for this evaluation, including 30 case studies and 12 client interviews (of which 7 were conducted by the evaluator), generally corroborate the data provided by the pilot implementors in the client summary sheets. ‣ Although the evaluation considered whether the cost-effectiveness of the three pilots can be established, limitations in the available data and other factors make it difficult to draw conclusions. Approximate average costs of case management per beneficiary per day for each of the pilots. ‣ Given the positive impact generated by the pilots, their approach and principles could beneficially be extended more broadly throughout the migration systems. The pilots also identified gaps and shortcomings in each country’s immigration system which are exposing individuals to unnecessary risk of detention and which, if addressed, can reduce the use of detention. A sustained and collaborative process of reform, based on the learning of the pilots and involving structured collaboration among governments, migrants, civil society and other actors, could deliver systemic improvements that would benefit all stakeholders.

Belgium, European Programme for Integration and Migration. 2020, 55pg