CHAPTER 1: GREECE'S POLICY AND ITS MAIN SPONSORS IN THE CONTEXT OF IRREGULAR MIGRATION CONTROL There are several steps in assessing the cost-effectiveness of a policy. The first, most crucial, is to define who the target population is, since the cost-effectiveness of an intervention may vary according to the individuals it focuses on. In the context of irregular migration management, this is a challenge in itself, since the term 'irregular migrant' is ambiguous and often eludes statistical measurements.24 In the context of the Greek policy framework, an irregular migrant is a third country national that enters, stays or resides within the Greek territory without the necessary legal requirements;25 the irregular migrant is thereby distinguished from an asylum-seeker who is entitled to cross the Greek borders. In the framework of the present study, the target population comprises of third country nationals that entered Greece without the necessary legal permission from 2008-2013, as well as those who stayed in the country without a valid residence permit. Asylum-seekers are at times indirectly addressed, but in reality they are an exception to the rule. 26 As regards the size of the target population, according to a recent estimate provided by the UN Special Rapporteur on Migration in 2013, there are at least 470,000 irregular migrants currently present in Greece.27 As this figure has not been challenged by the Greek authorities, it will be used as a reference in this study. The second step within a cost-effectiveness analysis is to identify the objectives of the policy. These may be short- and long-term. Once they have been defined, it is then possible to determine the measures adopted to implement them and assess their effectiveness against their 24 For a brief discussion see B. Vallmar, “Irregular Migration in the UK: Definition, Pathways and Scale”, Migration Observatory Briefing, COMPAS, University of Oxford, July 2011, available at http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/migobs/Briefing%20-%20Irregular%20Migration_0.pdf ; for a comparative compilation on the definition of an irregular migrant used by different EU Member States see European Migration Network, “Ad-Hoc Query on national definitions of irregular migrants and available data” requested by GHKCOWI on 1st March 2011 and produced on 21st November 2011, available at http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/whatwe-do/networks/european_migration_network/reports/docs/ad-hoc-queries/298.emn_adhoc_query_irregular_migration_updated_wider_dissemination_en.pdf 25 See in particular Article 5, Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R0562&from=EN ; See Law 3386/2005 in force until 4 June 2014, when Greece's new Migration Code entered into force; see also the New Migration Code, in particular Articles 2 - 6 26 Contrary to irregular migrants, asylum seekers are entitled to enter and stay in the country. In practice, however, access to the asylum system is limited. As a result an asylum-seeker may remain on an illegal status for many years and be treated as an irregular migrant by the authorities. See UNHCR – Office in Greece, “Contribution to the Dialogue on Migration and Asylum”, 2012, available at https://www.unhcr.gr/fileadmin/Greece/News/2012/positions/2012_Migration___Asylum_EN.pdf 27 See UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, “Report: Mission to Greece”, 18 April 2013, p. 5, par. 9, available at: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/23/46/Add.4 Page 16