The Commission is proposing to establish a European Border and Coast Guard and also to introduce systematic checks against relevant databases for all people entering and exiting the Schengen area.

During this workshop, day-to-day making and unmaking of borders will be investigated from the perspective of history, policy making, surveillance and control, contestation and human agency.

The conference of the Belgian National Contact Point to the EMN– which took place on 4 December in Brussels – focused on challenges and opportunities associated with the return of irregular and vulnerable migrants.

Justice and Home Affairs Ministers met in Brussels to discuss how to strengthen the following measures, inter alia: EU Passenger Name Record Directive, controls of external borders, information sharing and law enforcement cooperation.

The European Commission collects views and opinions, as well as ideas and knowledge, to elaborate a revised Smart Borders Package.

Today, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the "Smart Borders Package", one of the priorities included in the European Agenda on Migration. All citizens (EU nationals and non-EU nationals) and organisations are invited to contribute.

A 10 point action plan of the immediate actions has been presented by Commissioner Avramopoulos and received the full backing of Foreign and Interior Ministers.

As from 26 March 2015, unaccompanied foreign minors can also qualify for the special protection status when other protection, admission or residence procedures are ongoing.

On Sunday, 15 March the project on Smart Borders Pilot reached the next milestone - the execution phase – in Lisbon Airport, Portugal.

On 20 January, the Belgian Association for foreigners’ rights organizes a training on the topic “What protection for seriously ill persons following M’Bodj and Abdida case-law?”.