About AIDA

Who we are & What we do

Funders

European Union (AMIF)

About AIDA

The Asylum Information Database (AIDA) is a database managed by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), containing information on asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention and content of international protection across 23 countries. This includes 19 European Union (EU) Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia) and 4 non-EU countries (Switzerland,  Serbia, Türkiye, United Kingdom).

The overall goal of the database is to contribute to the improvement of asylum policies and practices in Europe and the situation of asylum seekers by providing all relevant actors with appropriate tools and information to support their advocacy and litigation efforts, both at the national and European level. These objectives are carried out by AIDA through the following activities:

Country reports

AIDA contains national reports documenting asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention and content of international protection in 23 countries.

Comparative reports

AIDA comparative reports provide a thorough comparative analysis of practice relating to the implementation of asylum standards across the countries covered by the database, in addition to an overview of statistical asylum trends and a discussion of key developments in asylum and migration policies in Europe. Annual reports were published in 2013, 2014 and 2015. From 2016 onwards, AIDA comparative reports are published in the form of thematic updates, focusing on the individual themes covered by the database. Thematic reports have been published on reception (March 2016), asylum procedures (September 2016), content of protection (March 2017), vulnerability (September 2017), detention (March 2018), access to the territory and registration (October 2018), reception (May 2019), asylum authorities (October 2019), digitalisation (January 2022), family reunification (February 2023) and access to social economic rights for beneficiaries of temporary protection (August 2023).

Fact-finding visits

AIDA includes the development of fact-finding visits to further investigate important protection gaps established through the country reports, and a methodological framework for such missions. Fact-finding visits have been conducted in Greece, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, France, Belgium, Germany and Poland.

Legal briefings

Legal briefings aim to bridge AIDA research with evidence-based legal reasoning and advocacy. With the assistance of information gathered from country reports, these short papers identify and analyse key issues in EU asylum law and policy and identify potential protection gaps in the asylum acquis. Legal briefings so far cover: (1) Dublin detention; (2) asylum statistics; (3) safe countries of origin; (4) procedural rights in detention; (5) age assessment of unaccompanied children; (6) residence permits for beneficiaries of international protection; (7) the length of asylum procedures; (8) travel documents for beneficiaries of international protection; (9) accelerated procedures; (10) the expansion of detention; (11) relocation; and (12) withdrawal of reception conditions.

Statistical updates

AIDA releases short publications with key figures and analysis on the operation of the Dublin system across selected European countries. Updates have been published for 2016, the first half of 2017, 2017, the first half of 2018, 2018, the first half of 2019, 2019 and the first half of 2020, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The content of the country reports is the responsibility of their respective authors. Please contact the authors directly for questions on the reports’ content.

For more information on the database, please contact the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

The Asylum Information Database is partially funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and ECRE. The contents of the database are the sole responsibility of ECRE and the national experts and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.