Expert Group on Immigration Liaison Officers Network

Each Member State posts an immigration liaison officer (ILO) to its consular authorities in a non-Member State. The ILO maintains direct contacts with the authorities in the host country in order to improve exchanges of information concerning: flows of illegal immigrants originating from or transiting through the host country; the routes followed by those flows of immigrants; their modus operandi; the existence of criminal organisations involved in the smuggling of immigrants; the incidents that may be the cause for new developments with respect to these flows of immigrants; the methods used for falsifying identity documents and travel documents; how best to assist the authorities in host countries in preventing these immigration flows; how best to facilitate the return of illegal immigrants to their countries of origin.