The government Di Rupo published on 1 December 2011 its coalition agreement. We summarize the most important political goals of the new government with regard to migration and asylum

Eurostat presents its report 'Migrants in Europe - A Statistical Portrait of the First and Second Generation'

The report of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (Centre) offers facts and figures on migration flows to Belgium up to 2009

On December, 20, 2011,The Directive 2011/95/EC was published. The Qualification directive sets standards for the identification of people in need of international protection in the EU either as refugees or as beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.

On 16 December 2011, the Council of Ministers prolonged the temporary provisions concerning restrictions of free access to the labour market for Bulgarian and Romanian workers till 31 December 2013

ECtHR finds Belgium violated Article 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining a mother and three children during asylum procedure

Directive 2011/98/EC is a directive on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State

In the framework of the formation of a Federal Government, Ms Maggie De Block (Open-VLD) has been appointed as State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Policy and Social Integration. Ms De Block has been sworn in on 6 December 2011

Every month, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons publishes a document containing the statistics on the asylum applications and the decisions taken.

The EMN-informs are providing a brief summary of the main policy-relevant findings from an EMN activity.

The Christian Michelsen Institute published a report commissioned by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration on the Norwegian Information, Return, and Reintegration of Iraqi Nationals to Iraq (IRRINI) Programme. The research has been done in cooperation with the University of Duhok.

Today, the International Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, adopted a draft law amending provisions relating to the regularization for medical reasons, in order to avoid abuse of this procedure and in particular to discourage manifestly unfounded claims.

The Council approved today amendments to the directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted, to be transposed into national law within 2 years.

The Commission highlights the need for the EU to strengthen its external migration policy by setting up a Global Approach to Migration through partnerships with non-EU countries that address issues related to migration and mobility in a way that makes cooperation mutually beneficial

The MAFE project is a major research initiative focused on migration between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. It brings together nine European and African research centres working on international migrations

Is there a need to change the EU rules on family reunification of migrants? By publishing its Green Paper on the right to family reunification of non-EU nationals living in the EU, the European Commission launched the debate

The Prague Process is a new political process promoting migration partnerships among the participating states of the European Union, the Schengen Area, South Eastern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The external evaluation of the EMN was preformed by the Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services and provides detailed conclusions and recommendations

Since 9 November the annual report 2010 of the CGRS can be consulted in English (abridged version)

The European Parliament adopted a revised version of the asylum directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted.

The Catholic University of Louvain will organize a restricted seminar about the first findings of a research project concerning the implementation into the Belgian law of the Dublin Regulation and the Qualification Directive

The new website of the Belgian Immigration Office is online

PREMIG is a four-year research project 2011-2014 based at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). The project addresses return migration from Norway and the United Kingdom