This article presents an overview of policies adopted to curb or respond to irregular migration flows. The article is presented in two sections. The first section, which is an overview of policies adopted in all regions of the world and in both developed and developing countries, attempts to show that there are a number of similarities in the decision-making process and in the content of policies that cut across regional lines and levels of development. The second section discusses policies adopted by governnments in Africa asnd Asia — regions that have been relatively neglected in policy analyses of irregular migration.