National Statistics Office

Population and Migration Statistics 

National Statistics Office

Lascaris

Valletta VLT 2000

Malta

The data within this domain is provided by the authorities of Malta to ensure compliance with the requirements of Article 4.4 (Dublin statistics) of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 on Migration and International Protection as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851.

As required by Article 9 of the Regulation (EC) 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 Eurostat with all the information necessary to evaluate the quality, comparability and completeness of the statistical information.

The reference document used for assessing the compliance of the concepts and definitions in this metadata file is the document Dublin statistics - Eurostat Technical guidelines to Dublin statistics (see Annex).

Dublin Statistics have been collected and published in line with requirements stipulated within Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007, amended by Regulation (EC) No. 851/2020 as from reference year 2008. As of reference year 2018, the Dublin Unit within the International Protection Agency is the national unit responsible for operating the Dublin procedure and, in turn, is the source for data reported to Eurostat. 

Classification system applied is that specified by Eurostat within the guidelines unless otherwise indicated in section 3.2.1.

Migration and international protection – Dublin statistics

Statistical concepts and definitions applied are those specified by Eurostat within the guidelines unless otherwise indicated in section 3.4.1.

The text of Art.4 of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 on Migration and international protection refers, in general, to statistics based on the number of persons and not on the number of applications. However, the article describing the 'Dublin' statistics (Art.4.4) refers to statistics based on the number of requests. Commission services recommend that Art.4.4 (more precisely 4.4.a, 4.4.c and 4.4.d) is interpreted as referring to the number of persons concerned by each request, decision, and transfer.

Population on which data collected refers to requests, decisions and transfers processed through the Dublin procedure by Dublin Unit in Malta within the reference year. 

Malta.

2008-2021

Not applicable.

Administrative event depending on data output.

2021 Calendar year.

All work carried out by NSO is regulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act, 2000: https://nso.gov.mt/national-legislation/.

Dublin Statistics have been collected and published in line with Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007, amended by Regulation (EC) No. 851/2020 as from reference year 2008.

Not applicable.

All data collected, processed and disseminated by the NSO is done so in terms of the Malta Statistics Authority Act and in line with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations allowing for data to be shared for statistical purposes.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.  

Not applicable.  Only aggregate tables are collected from the source.

Data is collected in terms of the Malta Statistics Authority, in which Part VIII - Use of Records of Public Authorities and protection of collected information stipulates that:

• All information furnished by any person, undertaking or public authority under this Act shall be used only for the purpose of statistical compilation and analysis.
• No information obtained in any way under this Act which can be related to an identifiable person or undertaking shall, except with the written consent of that person or undertaking or the personal representative or next-of-kin of that person, if he be deceased, be disseminated, shown or communicated to any person or body except -
  1. for the purposes of a prosecution for an offence under this Act, or
  2. to officers of statistics in the course of their duties under this Act.

Furthermore, all data that is requested and collected is done so in line with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations allowing for data to be shared for statistical purposes.

Not applicable as only total aggregate figure is published therefore small count rules do not apply.

NSO is a member of the Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS) Committee, which sets dissemination standards set by the International Monetary Fund with a view of enhancing the availability of timely and comprehensive statistics in order to support macroeconomic policies.  As a member of the SDDS Committee, NSO satisfies a number of criteria, which also entails the provision of an advanced news release calendar. 

NSO news release calendar is available on: http://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/Release_Calendar/Pages/News-Release-Calendar.aspx.

NSO adheres to internal policies directly related to the user's access to statistical data; one of which being a Dissemination Policy. Due to the importance of the area of demographic statistics, it is imperative that statistics are made available to all users, as soon as possible. In some cases, these statistics are provided on provisional basis and are therefore subject to revisions.

Annual

Data can be downloaded directly via the Eurostat website or users can contact the National Statistics Office.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Detailed information can be downloaded from Eurostat's online database:  http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

Not applicable.

Micro-data is not available.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

NSO follows the methodological recommendations stipulated by Eurostat and the relevant Regulation/Directives in order to ensure harmonisation of results.  NSO also documents all work processes involved in the compilation of these statistics, which are currently available for internal purposes.

Not applicable.

Refer to 10.6

Consistency checks on the aggregate data between related tables. Aggregate time-series comparisons are conducted to outline any trends which may need to be reviewed and validated with the source.  

Statistics within the domain are assessed to be of good quality.

• Good quality (extensive quality) - all quality requirements are met according to the standard quality criteria and in line with the Technical Guidelines for the data collection of Dublin statistics (Annex).
• Sufficient quality (acceptable quality) - minimum quality requirements are met: minor issues exist which need to be improved.
• Poor quality (inadequate quality) - the data do not meet the minimum quality requirements: important/many issues exist which affect the quality of the data and which need to be solved.

The statistics collected under Regulation (EC) 862/2007, amended by Regulation (EC) No. 851/2020 are used by a wide range of users at national, European and International level to cover various usersʼ needs. 

Users of Dublin statistics : Users of Dublin statistics include the European Migration Network (EMN), UNHCR, national entities, press, students and researchers. 

Unmet user needs (on statistics) and reasons why these needs cannot be satisfied (at national and international level) : Currently, all requirements stipulated by the regulation, are being met.

Not available.

All requirements stipulated by the relevant regulation are being fulfilled.

100%

Completeness is the extent to which all requested Dublin statistics are provided to Eurostat, according to the data provisions foreseen by Articles 4.4. of Regulation (EC) 862/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and by the Technical Guidelines for Dublin statistics (Annex).

• Complete - The statistics are complete: the dataset and all requested breakdowns are available, as foreseen by Regulation (EC) 862/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and the Technical Guidelines for the data collection of Dublin statistics (Annex)
• Incomplete - The statistics are incomplete: the dataset is available but some of the requested breakdowns are not available, as foreseen by Regulation (EC) 862/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and the Technical Guidelines for the data collection of Dublin statistics (Annex)
• Not available - The statistics are not available: the dataset is not available, that is all the requested breakdowns are missing, as foreseen by Regulation (EC) 862/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and the Technical Guidelines for the data collection of Dublin statistics (Annex)
• Not applicable - The statistics are Not applicable: the concept/process is not used or it does not exist in the country

Overall accuracy for the domain is said to be high.

Accuracy is the closeness of the data to the exact or true values that the statistics were intended to measure. Reliability is the closeness of the initial provided value to the subsequent (revised) value.

Assessment of the accuracy of the national Dublin statistics, at dataset level

• High = 100 % accuracy. The reported statistics measure accurately the target population, as foreseen by Regulation (EC) 862/2007 (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/851) and as defined in the Technical Guidelines for Dublin statistics (Annex)
• Good = 95 - 99 % accuracy. The reported statistics do not cover accurately the target population and a small part of the targeted population is missing, or a small part of non-targeted (erroneous) population is included in the reported statistics; the bias/error in the reported statistics is expected to be small
• Low = 80 - 94 % accuracy. The reported statistics do not cover accurately the target population and a large part of the targeted population is missing, or a large part of non-targeted (erroneous) population is included in the reported statistics; the bias/error in the reported statistics is expected to be large
• Very low = less than 80 % accuracy. The reported statistics do not cover accurately the target population and a very large part of the targeted population is missing, or a very large part of non-targeted (erroneous) population is included in the reported statistics; the bias/error in the reported statistics is expected to be very large

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See below.

Not applicable.

See the file ‘Proportion of units (persons) reported in the statistics that do not belong to the target populationʼ in annex.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Such errors may be possible due to human error but are likely negligible. 

Not applicable.

Deadline stipulated by the regulation has generally always been met.

- Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest : 90 days

- Reasons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation : Not applicable. Data provided within the deadline. 

- Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest : 90 days

- Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation : Not applicable. Data provided within the deadline. 

Minimal delay in provision of data. Data is provided within the deadline. 

Not applicable.

Data provided follows all Eurostat guidelines.  Data covers entire geographic territory for Malta.

Not applicable.

Assessment of possible sources of lack of comparability between countries, due to discrepancies from Eurostat concepts, definitions or due to differences in methods.

Data is compiled in line with Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007, amended by Regulation (EC) No. 851/2020 and therefore the time-series is considered comparable over time.

2008-2021

Coherence checks across domains are not possible as no other sources or outputs capture the data related to Dublin. 

Only annual figures provided.

Not applicable.

Figures are compared with previous years data and any fluctuations are discussed with the source. Coherence checks across other sources are not possible as no other sources or outputs capture the data related to Dublin.

Dublin data tables are numerous and complex requiring a comprehensive understanding of the Dublin legislation and system to complete.  The Dublin Unit, which provides the data, has limited human resources and therefore, despite the data collection only occurring once a year, still constitutes a considerable workload on the national authorities involved.

The manner with which figures are revised, if necessary, follows the guidelines of the European Statistics Code of Practice (https://nso.gov.mt/code-of-practice/) and Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007.

The manner with which figures are revised, if necessary, follows the guidelines of the European Statistics Code of Practice (https://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/About_NSO/Documents/Code_of_Practice/Code_of_Practice_November_2017.pdf) and Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007.

Following the identification of errors, change in policy and the identification of new sources revisions may be undertaken.

Revisions are conducted on an ad-hoc basis, when required, if new data sources or methods are said to improve the accuracy and/or quality of data.

Not applicable.

Dublin Unit, International Protection Agency 

Annual.

Data is collected from the Dublin Unit within the International Protection Agency. The data is provided in tables required to satisfy Regulation (EU) No. 862/2007 amended by Regulation (EU) 851/2020.

Aggregate data tables are requested from the Dublin Unit within the International Protection Agency. Validation checks are therefore conducted on aggregate data and queries are made to the source if required.

Complete aggregate tables are provided by the source and compiled through their administrative records.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.