The Latest Asylum Trends 2025 provides an annual overview of asylum activity in EU+ countries, covering asylum applications (per capita), the main nationalities of applicants, the top receiving countries, recognition rates, pending cases and the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection following the war in Ukraine. It also reviews policy developments in the EU+ and provides a 2026 outlook, examining, inter alia, geopolitical uncertainty and latent displacement risks.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, warns that externalised asylum and migration policies must be carefully designed to avoid serious human rights risks. His report highlights how transferring asylum, return, and border control functions to other countries can expose migrants to torture, arbitrary detention, and collective expulsions. Particular risks arise in the external processing of asylum claims, return procedures including “return hubs,” and outsourcing of border control. The Commissioner calls on states to adopt precautionary approaches, safeguard vulnerable people, and ensure transparency and accountability.

In its annual report, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) provides a comprehensive overview of asylum figures for 2024, along with key internal developments and initiatives aimed at improving efficiency and decision-making. The report also addresses upcoming procedural changes, international cooperation efforts, new competences related to statelessness and vulnerable applicants, staffing and organisational improvements, and clarifications on operational and budgetary resources.

This MPI Europe study examines the challenges sponsorship programs have faced in recruiting, retaining, and diversifying the sponsors for refugees in community sponsorship programs, as well as strategies that programs could and in some cases already use to overcome these obstacles. 

This comparative report provides an overview of the use of digital tools and remote working methods in asylum processes in 23 European countries. It questions the risks and benefits of such use and highlights several fundamental guarantees and procedural safeguards which must continue to apply to ensure that they do not infringe the existing CEAS framework.

In this report (which is available in Dutch and French) Myria analyses the broader migration context. It argues against pushbacks and for more legal pathways for people in need of protection.

This MPI Europe report explores the various forms of predeparture orientation programs offered by resettlement countries. It focuses on important design questions and identifies a set of features shared by effective programs.

This paper, which is entitled 'The EU’s New Migration Partnership with Mali: Shifting towards a Risky Security-Migration-Development Nexus', seeks to understand why and how the EU has been redefining its migration strategy regarding Mali.

In this annual report Myria analyses the current migration and tests policy and practice against respect for fundamental rights. Myria draws conclusions and formulates policy recommandations. 

This publication takes stock of recent EU developments in the area of asylum, borders and external cooperation on migration.

This new policy brief offers a critical analysis of the reignited trend of externalised EU migration policies that appear to be moving towards a model of offshore processing, as used by Australia. By looking at the proposed CEAS reform, it lays out the fundamental concerns connected with the use of such a model and notes the flaws in the economic and “migration management” justifications for offshoring.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been producing world migration reports since 2000. This year’s edition presents key data and information on migration as well as thematic chapters on highly topical migration issues.

The International Migration Report 2017 reviews the latest migration trends, assesses the demographic contribution of migration, examines the status of ratification of relevant conventions and summarizes recent developments on migration at the United Nations. 

This report reviews data relating to migrants' access to information on their rights in 19 reception and detention facilities of 8 EU Member States, including Belgium. It includes recommendations on how to make information provision effective.

This report points to the need for reform in the European asylum system. There is a need for a more balanced distribution of asylum seekers between the Member States and more uniform decision-making on asylum within the EU. The authors argue that a person seeking asylum should have the same chance of being granted asylum irrespective of the country in which the application is made. 

This study by the Ethical Journalism Network and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) aims to understand the prevailing media narratives on migration in different national contexts. It looks at their strengths and shortcomings, and provides some insight into the interplay between editorial lines, political narratives, journalistic approaches and public discourse.

This publication is based on social media research conducted by a small UNHCR team. Between March and December 2016, they issued weekly monitoring reports which have now been compiled into this synopsis.

This briefing provides a short overview of major developments relating to asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum seekers and content of international protection accros the countries covered by the Asylum Information Database (AIDA).

We know surprisingly little about how NGOs and asylum lawyers conduct research for asylum claims. To close this gap, Asylos interviewed 20 asylum lawyers and NGO staff in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and the UK  to understand the challenges of researching evidence, as well as the opportunities for improving the research process. Access the findings in our report

Le nombre de demandes d’asile introduites en Belgique en 2016 a diminué de plus de la moitié par rapport à l’année passée et le nombre de décisions prises par le CGRA a atteint un niveau record.

This report presents an overview of the shifting of economic activity to developing countries and examines whether this shift has led to an increase in international migration towards developing countries.

In this paper, UNHCR sets out a vision for achieving a pragmatic and common approach to responding to refugees and migrants. The proposals can facilitate the development, over the long term, of EU-wide arrangements to address and respond to movements effectively.

This MPI report provides an overview of the barriers to the successful labor market integration of refugees and asylum seekers across all skills levels, and analyzes the targeted support initiatives and structural policy levers available to overcome them.

This report provides a broad overview of recent trends in international migration flows and migration policies in OECD countries and some non-OECD countries.

In this study, Myria, the Federal Migration Centre, closely looks at the reaction of Europe regarding the unusual situation of refugees in 2015 and 2016 and more particularly from a fundamental rights point of view.