In a press release published today, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) announced that it would unblock the suspended cases of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and start again to process all Palestinian cases.

At the Global Refugee Forum this week in Geneva, EU Member States announced their collective pledge for 2024 - 2025: 61.000 new places combined for resettlement and humanitarian admission for people in need of international protection. Of these, 31.000 are for resettlement, to be implemented in close cooperation with UNHCR, and 30.000 are for humanitarian admission.

Myria has published the sixth thematic section of its 2023 annual report. This section entitled "International protection" reports that the refusal rate for asylum seekers from Afghanistan in 2022 is higher in Belgium (56%) than the average for EU countries (47%). In the event of return, some Afghan asylum seekers could risk degrading or even inhuman treatment (prohibited by Article 3 of the ECHR), given the current situation in Afghanistan.

The European Commission is presenting today a set of good practices to help Member States implement in the most effective way the actions to which they have committed under the Dublin Roadmap. 

The Court of Justice of the European Union has released two judgements today, respectively in Case C‑374/22 and in Case C‑614/22, where specific provisions of Directive 2011/95/EU must be interpreted as not requiring the Member States to grant the parent of a child who has refugee status in a Member State the right to international protection in that Member State.

The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) announced on 20 October 2023 that the notification of decisions granting or refusing subsidiary protection status to applicants from Gaza and the West Bank is suspended until the CGRS has sufficient objective information to assess the security situation in the Palestinian territories accurately.

Since 2013, Belgium has already resettled more than 4,500 refugees. To celebrate the importance of the program, Fedasil organised today an event bringing together key national and international partners such as the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, UNHCR, IOM, Foreign Affairs, the Immigration Office and Caritas International.

The European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary is an essential resource, which offers an EU-wide multidisciplinary vocabulary of approximately 500 terms and concepts related to asylum and migration. Let's focus today on the term "temporary protection" to make sure we have a common understanding and use of the term!

The list of safe countries of origin, which is revised once a year, was updated on 7 April 2023 and is now published in Belgium’s Official Journal. At present, the following countries are considered as safe countries of origin: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and India. 

In its judgments in cases C-8/22, C-663/21 and C-402/22, the Court clarified the conditions for revoking or refusing refugee status with regard to a third-country national who is convicted of a crime. The individual concerned must, inter alia, constitute a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society and the decision must observe the principle of proportionality.

The European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary is an essential resource, which offers an EU-wide multidisciplinary vocabulary of approximately 500 terms and concepts related to asylum and migration. Let's focus today on the term "resettlement" to make sure we have a common understanding and use of the term!

The State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor has appointed Sophie Van Balberghe as the new Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS). The Council of Ministers approved her appointment today.