Police and Border Guard Board

Development Department

Analysis Bureau

tiiu-liisa.rummo@politsei.ee

1. Introduction

This metadata information is provided by Estonia's authorities to ensure compliance with the requirements of Articles 5 and 7 of Regulation 862/2007 on Community Statistics on Migration and International Protection.

As required by Article 9 of the Regulation 862/2007, Member States must report to Eurostat on the data sources used, the reasons for the selection of these sources and the effects of the selected data on the quality of the statistics. Member States shall provide it with all the information necessary to evaluate the quality, comparability and completeness of the statistical information.

The reference terms for the assessment of quality compliance are provided by Eurostat in the EIL technical guidelines applied for 2014 reference period (See section 3.4 Statistical concepts and definitions from the EIL ESMS file).

2. General description of the statistical domain at national level

EIL National System (level of development, main changes that affected the system in the last years and further development)

The data about immigration is stored in two databases. Estonia has a border contor data base and data base for proceeding of illegal immigration. Some data is stored in Excels, where Data is collected manually.

Legal national framework relevant for EIL statistics

Not available information.

Institutional infrastructure (list of the institutions involved in managing the EIL registers and the institutions involved in the production of the EIL statistics)

Police and Border Guard Board, IOM

General procedure for recording Non-EU citizens refused entry at the external borders

For Non-Eu citizen official at externals borders compile act of refusal for entry together with entry ban.

General procedure for recording Non-EU citizens found to be illegally present

They are registered as illegals and depends on the case, officials compile departure order.

General procedure for recording Non-EU citizens ordered to leave

All the data about is stored in database.

General procedure for recording Non-EU citizens returned following an order to leave

Official will enter the data to database, if the have confirmation about departure.

3. Main problems that affect the quality of the data and what tables are concerned including the compliance status with the definitions from EIL Technical Guideline

(See metadata information including concepts and definitions from the EIL ESMS file)

There are no big problems.

The national system is using the same system of classification of "grounds for refusal" as laid down in Annex V, part B of the Schengen Borders Code (see: EIL Technical Guidelines).

Classification of citizenship is based on the ISO-3166 code list (using alpha-2).

Enforcement of immigration legislation.

Third country nationals:

Any person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 17 (1) of the Treaty, including stateless persons (see Art. 2.1 (i) of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007).

Third country nationals refused entry at the external border:

Third country nationals formally refused permission to enter the territory of a Member State (see Art. 2.1 (q) and 5.1(a) of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007). The external border is defined as in the Schengen Borders Code (Council Regulation (EC) No 562/2006, more details on Article 2.2). For countries which are not in the Schengen area, the external border is the same as the international border. The grounds for refusal refer to the Annex V part B of the Schengen Border Code, which is an administrative document in use in most of the Member States.

Each person is counted only once within the reference period, irrespective of the number of refusals issued to the same person.

Third country nationals found to be illegally present:

Third country nationals who are detected by Member States' authorities and have been determined to be illegally present under national laws relating to immigration (see Art. 2.1 (r) and 5.1(b) of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007). This category relates to persons who have been found to have entered illegally (for example by avoiding immigration controls or by employing a fraudulent document) and those who may have entered legitimately but have subsequently remained on an illegal basis (for example by overstaying their permission to remain or by taking unauthorised employment).

Only persons who are apprehended or otherwise come to the attention of national immigration authorities are recorded in these statistics. These are not intended to be a measure of the total number of persons who are present in the country on an unauthorised basis.

Each person is counted only once within the reference period.

Third country nationals ordered to leave:

Third country nationals found to be illegally present who are subject to an administrative or judicial decision or act stating that their stay is illegal and imposing an obligation to leave the territory of the Member State (see Art. 7.1 (a) of the Regulation).  

These statistics do not include persons who are transferred from one Member State to another under the mechanism established by the Dublin Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 and (EC) No 1560/2003, for these cases see related Dublin Statistics).

Each person is counted only once within the reference period, irrespective of the number of notices issued to the same person.

Third country nationals returned following an order to leave:

Third country nationals who have in fact left the territory of the Member State, following an administrative or judicial decision or act stating that their stay is illegal and imposing an obligation to leave the territory (see Art. 7.1 (b) of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007). On a voluntary basis Member States provide Eurostat with a subcategory which relates to third country nationals returned to a third country only.

Persons who left the territory within the year may have been subject to an obligation to leave in a previous year. As such, the number of persons who actually left the territory may be greater than those who were subject to an obligation to leave in the same year.

The EIL statistics based on Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007 include forced returns and assisted voluntary returns. Unassisted voluntary returns are included where these are reliably recorded. Data do not include persons who are transferred from one Member State to another under the mechanism established by the Dublin Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 604/2013 and Council Regulation (EC) No 1560/2003 amended by Council Regulation (EC) 118/2014, for these cases see related Dublin Statistics).

Each person is counted only once within the reference period.

Starting with  first reference year 2014 new statistics on third country returned were as well collected by Eurostat on voluntary basis. These new statistics are using the following definitions:

Voluntary Return

Voluntary Return refers to the situation in which the third-country national complies voluntarily with the obligation to return (i.e. no enforcement procedure had to be launched) and this departure is confirmed by the information from eg. the border authority or the consulate authorities in the country of origin or other authorities such as IOM or any other organisations implementing a program to assist migrants to return to a third-country. Definition based on Art 3.8 Directive 115/2008/EC.

Enforced return

Enforced return, removal refers to the situation in which the third-country national is subject to the enforcement of the obligation to return (the enforcement procedure has been launched). Definition based on Art 3.5 and 3.8 Directive 115/2008/EC.

Other concluded return

Other concluded return refers to the situation in which one can reasonably presume that the third country national was returned based on some assumptions (some information are missing and the departure is not confirmed by the information from the border authority).

Assisted Return

Assisted Return refers to the situation in which the third-country national was assisted to return. He/she is the beneficiary of a national or EU MS cooperative program to encourage return and to provide reintegration assistance. The TCN received (i) an in-kind assistance prior to departure (e.g. purchase of plane tickets) and/or (ii) in-cash allowances at the point of departure/upon arrival and/or (iii) an in-kind or in-cash reintegration assistance. Please note that beneficiaries of assisted return programs are mostly TCN who voluntarily return but some may also have been returned by force Definition based on Art 3.8 Directive 115/2008/EC and Asylum and Migration Glossary 2.0.

Non-Assisted Return

Non-Assisted Return refers to the situation in which the third-country national is recorded with departure and he/she does not receive a support and assistance from the national authorities.

Readmission agreement

Readmission agreement refers to the situation where an international agreement exists between the reporting country and the country of return (of the third country national returned) under which the readmission procedure is set out.

Transit country

Transit country refers to the country that is considered intermediary destination of the TCN returned on the way to the country of Citizenship

Each table refers to the number of persons, not to the number of administrative decisions or acts.

Please see point 2.4 "Concepts and definitions".

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

National systematic process of gathering data for official statistics.

The data about immigration is stored in two databases. Estonia has a border contor data base and data base for proceeding of illegal immigration. Some data is stored in Excels, where data is collected manually.

Description of the data validation system at national level

N/A

Checking if the double counting cases are excluded - Checking the consistency between “TCN-s subjects to an obligation to leave” and “TCN-s who actually left the territory”. - Checking the consistency between “TCN-s who returned to a Third Country” and “TCN-s who actually left the territory”.

Estimations used: Details on the estimations done for EIL statistics (methodology applied and the concerned categories and tables)

No estimations used.

Not applicable.

We compile data in compliance with the Council Regulation (EC) 862/2007 and following guidelines and instructions provided by Eurostat. Before sending the data, consistent validation checks are performed.

4.2.1. Description of the Quality management system at national level

We are uncharged of periodical and spot control in the database.

• Good quality (extensive quality) - covers all quality requirements, substantial quality checks are performed and a very good cooperation exists between institutions.
• Sufficient quality (acceptable quality) - covers minimum requirements, but issues still exist and more information/validation is needed for a better quality assessment and acceptable cooperation issues exists.
• Poor quality (inadequate quality) - the data do not meet the minimum requirements or there is not enough information for quality assessment and important cooperation issues exists.

1. General aspects

The statistics collected under the Regulation 862/2007 are widely used in official publications and by a wide range of users at national, European and International level.

Main users of EIL statistics at national level
The EIL statistics produced are regularly used by national administrations, academic researchers and civil society groups working on a wide range of topics including the integration of immigrants, the development and monitoring of national asylum and immigration procedures, and the projection of the future population and labour force.

Main users of EIL statistics at European and International level
The main users of EIL statistics are Eurostat, DG Home Affairs and EASO. The statistics are used in several publications of the Commission, as well as in the preparation of regular reports, policy proposals and analysis. The statistics also provide an input to the EMN studies and reports that address specific issues of current policy importance.

2. EIL data publication at national level

Presentation of the EIL statistics published at national level

Not available information.

Differences between the data provided to Eurostat and the data published at national level 

Not available information.

Not available information.

Completeness of the data provided based on Articles 5 and 7 Regulation 862/2007 (mandatory data provision) and justification of the missing mandatory breakdowns and completeness of the data provided on voluntary basis.

Not available information.

Not available information.

Procedures and classifications used in case of missing information (e.g. unknown citizenship, age, etc)

Unknown citizenship, age and gender is classified as unknown.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Details related to the data revision policy and expected revisions of the data sent to Eurostat

Annual data revision.

Not applicable.

Data should be supplied to Eurostat no later than 3 months after the end of the reference period.

Possible annual date when the available data has sufficient quality to be published (sent to Eurostat)

 By the end of march.

By the end of march.

Problems with data provision to Eurostat in due time and the impact of these problems on the data quality provided to Eurostat

No problems.

Not available information.

1. Provision of data using the Eurostat EIL Technical Guidelines and exceptions applied

Fully compliance

2. Details on categories of Non-EU citizens difficult to be classified using the reference definitions from EIL technical guidelines and the categories excluded from these reasons (excluded from the statistics reported)

Fully compliance

3. Description of records related to "Unknown" country of citizenship category

When the identification of the citizenship couldn't be established.

4. Description of records related to "Unknown" age category

When the age of the person couldn't be established.

5. Description of records related to "Unknown" sex category

When the sex of the person couldn't be established.

6. Establishing the reported ground in case of “multiple grounds” for the same refusal and the impact on double counting of the person in the same dataset

It is applied the methodological procedure of "one ground per refused person", as laid down in EIL Technical Guidelines (procedure of "higher” ground overrules the “lower” ground for refusal).

7. Type of "external border" applicable

Land boarder, Sea border and Air border.

8. The definition of “refused Non-EU citizens” applied

The Schengen Borders Code's refusal definition is applies for the Statistics reported to Eurostat

9. The correspondence between the national system of “grounds for refusal" classification and Schengen Borders Code classification.

Fully consistency

10. The definition of “Non-EU citizens found to be illegally present” applied

Applicable.

11. The definition of “Non-EU citizens ordered to leave” applied

 Applicable.

12. The definition of “Non-EU citizens returned following an order to leave” applied

Applicable.

Not applicable

Methodological changes between the present reference year and previous year(s)

None

Justification of the important changes in figures reported for the present reference year and previous year(s)

None

Not available information.

1. Links between the statistics on refused Non-EU citizens and the statistics on Non-EU citizens found to be illegally present.

Fully Compliance

2. Links between the statistics on Non-EU citizens found to be illegally present and the statistics on Non-EU citizens with obligation to leave.

Fully Compliance

3. Links between the statistics on Non-EU citizens found to be illegally present and the statistics on Non-EU citizens with obligation to leave.

Fully Compliance

4. Coherence between the EIL statistics and Asylum statistics

Fully Compliance

5. Dublin cases included in EIL statistics and the impact on the totals provided 

Fully Compliance

6. Inclusion of voluntary returned Non-EU citizens in the statistics on Non-EU citizens who actually left the territory 

Fully Compliance

7. Links between the EIL statistics and Asylum statistics and details related to the asylum applicant(s) case(s) included in EIL statistics. 

Fully Compliance

Not applicable

Not applicable.

4. Links and differences between the Non-EU citizens with obligation to leave and Non-EU citizens who actually left the territory

Each category is well delimitated.

5. Links and differences between the Non-EU citizens who actually left the territory and Non-EU citizens who left the territory to a third country

Each category is well delimitated.

News releases on-line.

Publications, e.g.: https://www.digar.ee/arhiiv/en/books/21827

Presentation of the National online national database for EIL data accessible to the public and the accessibility procedure

Not available information.

Not available information.

Not available information.

Not available information.

Member States have the responsibility to send the statistics on enforcement of immigration legislation to Eurostat. Eurostat provide Technical Guidelines to the member States describing the procedures and the quality requirements for the statistics collected. Enforcement of immigration legislation data contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Council Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of 11 July 2007.

Presentation of the available quality management - documentation

The compilation of statistics on enforcement of immigration legislation is based on Article 5 and 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 which depicts in details the data provisions Member States are bound to supply Eurostat with.

Not available information.

Not available information.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The following classification is used for data availability at Eurostat level:

The term "not applicable" relates to the categories of permits which do not exist in national legislation/administrative procedures and therefore such statistics cannot be issued.

The term "not available" relates to categories of data that exist in the national legal/administrative system but cannot be delivered under EIL data collection for various reasons (e.g. data cannot exist, data exist but are not collected, data are unreliable, etc.).