Uncomfortable data | Łukasz Szoszkiewicz

At least 330,000 children are deprived of their liberty for migration-related reasons every year worldwide. Because of the limited data available publicly, little is known about the characteristics of these children. The project intended to explore the variety of data collection practices and conduct in-depth case studies describing selected data collection frameworks.

Key highlights

Establishment of a learning community - I assembled a team of five young researchers supported by a creative graphic designer. Our team exemplified diversity (Australia, Brazil, France, Lebanon, Serbia), expertise, and dedication to making a meaningful impact. The workspace was arranged on Slack, allowing us to document and navigate through more than 2,700 messages sent between us.
Utilizing FOI requests for data collection - to extract the most up-to-date statistics on children in immigration detention, we submitted Freedom of Information requests to 37 states (out of which 23 replied).
Designing the Data Maturity Index - the dedicated index served as an analytical tool to measure the robustness of domestic data collection frameworks, including their legal framework, public accessibility, timeliness and level of disaggregation. The index scored the countries on a scale of 0-20, providing a basis for selecting promising practices for in-depth case studies (Mexico & Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Summary:

Title: Children detained for migration-related reasons – towards a model for better data collection
Project Team: Łukasz Szoszkiewicz (Principal Investigator), Georges Younes, Hugo Balnaves, Carolina Canettieri, Milica Stajić, Ewelina Ulita, Noemie Ninnin, Nedaa Yousef
Funding: Global Campus of Human Rights and Right Livelihood
Timeframe: August 2020 – July 2021

Related publications

2021

GCHR

Uncomfortable Data: Ending Deprivation of Liberty of Migrant Children through Improved Data

Ł. Szoszkiewicz, H. Balnaves, C. Canettieri, and M. Stajić

Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021

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At least 330,000 children are deprived of their liberty for migration related reasons every year worldwide. Because of the limited data available publicly, little is known about the characteristics of these children. This study aims to verify the existence, accessibility, and quality of data on immigration detention of children. In order to verify what categories of data are recorded by the public authorities, the authors approached 37 states requesting statistics under Freedom of Information regulations. Migration authorities were asked for historical and up-to-date statistics disaggregated by basic demographic features such as gender, nationality and accompanied status. Although the findings confirm the scarcity of data, several data-related promising practices were identified. Their implementation can significantly improve data capabilities of migration authorities and contribute to better policy making, particularly in measuring the progress toward ending the immigration detention of children. This report builds on the experience of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty (2019) which was the first scientific attempt to assess the magnitude of the situation of children deprived of liberty, including migrant children.