Attachments
Introduction
FRAN Quarterly reports are prepared by the Frontex Risk Analysis Unit and provide a regular overview of irregular migration at the EU’s external borders, based on the irregular migration data exchanged among Member State border-control authorities within the cooperative framework of the Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN) and its subsidiary, the European Union Document-Fraud Risk Analysis Network (EDF-RAN).
The main purpose of the FRAN Quarterlies is to provide:
1. feedback to the FRAN community in the context of information exchange;
2. a periodic update of irregular migration situation at EU level; and
3. material for constructive discussion on reporting protocols and related trends and patterns.
This report is intended to simultaneously serve two objectives: first – to provide a clear summary of the situation at the external border of the EU, and second – to serve as an archive for future reference and comparative analyses.
Harmonising complex, multi-source migration data among Frontex and Member States is an ongoing process. Therefore, some of the more detailed data and trends in this report should be interpreted with caution and, where possible, cross-referenced with information from other sources. The statistics should be understood in the context of the different levels of passenger flows passing through different border sections, the activities of Member State border-control authorities undertaken to secure different border sections and widespread variation in reporting and data-collection practices.
FRAN members, Member State risk analysis experts and border-control authorities are considered the primary customers of these reports. In addition to the discussions taking place during FRAN meetings,
Member State experts are invited and actively encouraged to examine and comment upon the data and analyses presented here. Despite all efforts of the Frontex Risk Analysis Unit and Member State experts involved in data exchange and analyses, some minor errors may occur in these reports due to very challenging timelines and the growing volume and complexity of the data and other information exchanged within the FRAN community.
Starting with the 2015 Q1 issue, the Frontex Risk Analysis Unit has implemented a number of changes to present the analysis of migration-related indicators in the FRAN Quarterly in a more concise and focused way.
The first part provides a situational overview, broken down by main areas of work of border-control authorities and police activities related to irregular migration.
Surveillance, describing and analysing trends in detections of illegal border-crossing between BCPs;
Border checks, describing detections reported during checks at BCPs (people hiding in vehicles or refused entry);
Fraudulent documents, describing trends and patterns related to document fraud both at the border and within the EU;
Situation in the EU, examining developments related to: persons applying for asylum and those detected staying illegally, detected facilitators, return decisions issued and effective returns.
The second thematic part of the report consists of several featured risk analyses, examining trends and patterns of irregular migration in a more comprehensive manner. Eventually, it is expected that some of the featured analysis topics would be developed by external contributors (FRAN members, EU agencies and international institutions).