This study provides an overview of legal and policy developments related to the implementation of the Family Reunification Directive since 2017. It examines the current state of national legislation, policies, and practices following two decades of the Directive’s application, incorporating relevant case law and highlighting both challenges and best practices. It also presents data on the scale and evolution of family reunification between 2017 and 2023 (and 2024 where available), drawing on both Eurostat and national sources.

This EMN study examines how 25 countries address the international dimension of human trafficking, encompassing prevention, law enforcement, victim support, and international partnerships. It presents national approaches, good practices and persistent challenges, both within EMN countries and in cooperation with third countries. Readers will find examples of institutional cooperation, capacity-building efforts, and initiatives targeting specific regions or groups. The study also highlights how recent EU policy developments are shaping national anti-trafficking strategies.

Trafficking in human beings is a crime against the victim’s fundamental rights. It can take several forms, such as sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery and servitude-related practices, as well as the removal of organs. This practice is prohibited under numerous EU and international instruments. Yet, persistent demand for sexual services and for low-wage workers employed in manual jobs continues to provide opportunities for traffickers to exploit human beings.

Today, the Belgian Contact Point of the European Migration Network published a new national report on Family Reunification of Third Country Nationals in Belgium. The report served as the Belgian contribution to an EU Synthesis report on the subject, which compares national policies and practices on the subject in 25 EU Member States and Norway.

This study provides information on the scale, characteristics, trends and patterns of migrant smuggling to the EU and analyzes the institutional arrangements, legal framework, policies and activities at international, EU and national level tackling this phenomenon.

This focussed study examines the mechanisms for detection, identification and referral of (potential) victims of trafficking in human beings in international protection (including Dublin) and forced return procedures.

Based on the main findings of national contributions from 24 EMN NCP, the report highlights similarities and differences in means of prevention, detection and action, as well as statistics related to marriages of convenience and false declarations of parenthood.

In this national contribution to the EMN focussed study, the Belgian Contact Point clarifies the scope of the issue and presents national means of prevention, detection and actions against such misuses, as well as statistics in this field.

The King Baudouin Foundation has organized between April 2010 to March 2011 different meetings gathering actors implicated by their personal or their professional background in the field of family reunification policies