From 4-5 July, 2022 the Border Management Programme in Central Asia organised a series of bilateral meetings with the Kyrgyz state authorities dealing with migration and border management, as well as local governance, followed by a Round Table “Roadmap for the Study on Cross-Border Circular Migration in Fergana Valley” in Bishkek to re-confirm the priority topics and the way forward for the Study.

During the meetings, the partners reviewed the scope and the methodology proposed for the research and provided their feedback, which reconfirmed the high relevance and interest in the study. The bilateral meetings allowed the project implementing team and the researcher to collect additional information on the national data gathering system and the priorities of the beneficiary agencies.

Following the bilateral meetings, a Roundtable on the way forward for the Study on Cross-Border Circular Migration gathered the representatives of the ministries and line agencies responsible for the state security, border management, employment, migration, emergency response, statistics and human rights in Kyrgyzstan to ensure comprehensive approach to the study and consultation with all relevant parties. This helped to validate the focus areas, research methodology and study implementation timeline.