On 15 December, EMN Belgium and the EMN Return Expert Group hosted a webinar on Alternatives to Detention. The online event focused on the current legal framework on alternatives to detention, the implementation of these alternatives in practice and the identification of emerging good practices and pilot projects.

The new State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Sammy Mahdi (CD&V) presented his General Policy Paper on Asylum and Migration in Parliament on 18 November 2020.

On 16 September 2020, the Interior Committee of the Belgian House of Representatives held a parliamentary hearing on a legislative proposal concerning the prohibition of detention of minors. EMN Belgium contributed to the hearing by presenting the laws, policies and practices in other EU Member States.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, personal interviews of applicants for international protection at the CGRS were stopped in March. They were started again in June. To improve the safety of staff and applicants, a video with practical instructions was created.

The EMN has recently conducted a study on "Comparative overview of national protection statuses”. A short video was created to highlight some of the key findings of this study.

Today EMN Belgium has launched a Twitter account to better disseminate EMN outputs. 

Border closures and quarantine rules to prevent the spreading of Covid-19 risk having a negative impact on seasonal work. To address labour shortages in the agricultural and horticultural sectors, the federal and regional governments decided to adopt a series of measures in the spring of 2020.

In 2020 EMN Belgium will continue to contribute to multiple EMN outputs on migration and asylum policy in the EU Member States. This way EMN Belgium contributes to an evidence-based migration and asylum policy in the EU and Belgium.

To follow the progress of migrants in the host society and to identify the spheres in which policy measures should be taken, we must increase the asylum and immigration longitudinal data.