Interceptions

When controlling any foreign national on the territory who does not have the required documents or who poses a danger to public order, the intercepting police department has to contact the IO and remit an administrative report on this control.

The IO produces two types of statistics based on these administrative reports:

  • National statistics are produced to meet national needs and follow national definitions;
  • European statistics are produced to meet the demands of the European institutions under the supervision of Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Union) following the definitions harmonised at European level (for this theme, the definitions are based on Article 5 1. b of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection and the related Eurostat technical instructions).

Currently, the difference between the two types of definitions can be explained mainly by the following elements:

  • The national statistics include all administrative reports, while the European statistics are limited to the reports of foreigners who are « irregularly staying on the territory of the Member State under national immigration law »;
  • Citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are not included in European statistics;
  • The statistics for Eurostat count the number of persons (and not the number of events) only once per reference period;
  • As the numbers are low in certain countries and for certain categories, European statistics on removals are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.