Concerns around irregular migration have dominated media headlines across Europe, shaped elections, and influenced historic policy initiatives such as the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. Discussions and policymaking related to irregular migration are often heavily influenced by the latest numbers and estimates of quickly changing irregular migration trends, such as the number of border crossings or apprehensions of migrants without legal status. Such data also play an important role in advocacy, the evaluation of policies, operational planning, and efforts to foster dialogue and policy innovation. But before policymakers, practitioners, researchers, nongovernmental organisation staff, and other actors use data on irregular migration, datasets are shaped by many different stakeholders, each with their own objectives and priorities. The first step in this pathway involves defining irregular migration, after which data are collected, shared, accessed, interpreted, and disseminated. In each step—from definition to dissemination—obstacles emerge that can hinder the effective collection and use of data to help manage migration, support communities in which irregular migrants live, and reach those migrants with essential services.

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International project anual report