Alternatives to detention for asylum seekers and people in return procedures 2. Alternatives to detention: selected instruments This section presents the applicable legal standards relating to alternatives to detention and provides an overview of alternatives, as well as the procedural guarantees that must be in place for them to be used. 2.1. Selected non-binding United Nations (UN) instruments relating to alternatives to detention The UN recommends careful consideration before detaining asylum seekers, refugees or migrants in an irregular situation to determine whether deprivation of liberty is necessary and proportionate. Detention is only allowed for the shortest appropriate period of time. Generally, detention should be a measure of last resort and Member States should ensure that alternatives to detention are available in law and implemented in practice. Children should not be detained purely for immigration-related reasons. The United Nations have developed a set of basic principles to promote the use of non-custodial measures for people subject to alternatives to imprisonment in the criminal field. These rules contain important safeguards on access to rights and remedies that are largely applicable to the immigration field as well. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, alternatives have proved to be considerably less expensive than detention, not only in terms of direct costs but also when it comes to longer-term costs associated with detention, such as the impact on health services or migrant integration. Instrument Key text United Nations General Assembly Protection of migrants: resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 3 April 2013, A/RES/67/172 4. […] (a) Calls upon all States to respect the human rights and the inherent dignity of migrants and to put an end to arbitrary arrest and detention and, where necessary, to review detention periods in order to avoid excessive detention of irregular migrants, and to adopt, where applicable, alternative measures to detention; […] (d) Also notes with appreciation the successful implementation by some States of alternative measures to detention in cases of undocumented migration as a practice that deserves consideration by all States; United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for NonCustodial Measures (The Tokyo Rules), 14 December 1991, A/RES/45/110 1.1 The present Standard Minimum Rules provide a set of basic principles to promote the use of noncustodial measures, as well as minimum safeguards for persons subject to alternatives to imprisonment. United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and NonCustodial Measures for Women Offenders (the The Bangkok Rules complement the Tokyo rules (above) by displaying standards specifically addressing the needs of women in the criminal judicial system. Section III focuses on non-custodial measures both for pre-trial detention and sentencing post-conviction. The rules specifically require to always take into account the best interests of any children 7