Foreigner’s Pre-removal Detention: What Can We Learn from Data? Analysis of Pre-Removal Files Processed in the Province of Barcelona in 2015

Abstract

This paper contains the most important findings of an empirical research on the detention files of undocumented migrants for the purpose of removal processed in the province of Barcelona in 2015. The analysis of 575 files with an innovative methodology offers relevant information about the profiles of deportable migrants and the way in which all involved actors (police, state prosecutors, lawyers and judges) behave. The study gives also information about the detention that precedes all files, as well as about the deportation order that should be executed thanks to pre-removal detention. All these figures show which is the way in which pre-removal detention works and which are the criteria that are used in the implementation of the legal rules that govern preremoval detention of undocumented migrants.

Keywords

• internamiento de extranjeros
• CIE
• inmigración irregular
• expulsión de extranjeros
• España