EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research report has been published as part of the EU Horizon 2020 VULNER research project (www.vulner.eu). Our project arose from the finding that the requirement to address migrants’ multiple and various vulnerabilities is flooding the policy discourse on asylum and migration at the EU and global levels (as illustrated by the UN Global Compact for Migration and its objective 7 to ‘reduce vulnerabilities’ in migration, and the current focus at the EU level on the establishment of vulnerability assessment mech- anisms as part of asylum and border procedures as well as in resettlement programmes). Yet, if not based on scientific data and analyses that provide a clear and non-stereotyped understanding of the vulnerabilities that are lived and experienced by migrants, such a policy objective runs the risk of failing to address vulnerabilities, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities or even producing new ones. The overall objective of the VULNER project is to produce such scientific knowledge in ways that will assist states in identifying suitable strategies to assess the ‘vulnerabilities’ of migrants, to address their specific needs and to prevent stereotyped understandings of their lived experiences. The VULNER project also seeks to develop a broader, more thorough and more critical reflection on the increasing use of ‘vulnerability’ as a legal and policy standard that guides the development and the implementation of migration policies, including how it relates to border control considerations inherent in such policies. This research report presents some of the intermediate research results of the VULNER project, based on the first phase of the project, which consisted of mapping out the vulnerability assessment mechanisms developed by state authorities in Belgium, including how they are implemented on the ground through the practices of the public servants in charge. The following research questions are addressed: What do the relevant domestic legislation, case-law, policy documents, and ...