The European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) judgement dated from 23 October 2012, highlighting some deficiencies in foreign children's rights in Belgium, was published today.

On 4 March 2013, the Law laying down sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals came into force.

Researchers and practicioners are invited to submit papers in preparation for an international conference aimed at understanding the impact of very different forms of migrations (i.e. forced migrations, economic migrations, return migrations) on children, including long-term consequences.

The the January/February edition of the European Asylum Support Office’s newsletter was launched.

At the occasion of the IE EMN NCP conference in Dublin, a wide audience, including national policy makers and experts as well as representatives from the Commission and other NCPs, discussed protection challenges.

"Carrefour des Cultures" proposes a cycle of 5 cine debates putting forward women migrants who, by their trajectories and actions, go against stereotypes concerning them. Space is left open, after screening, for exchanges around the themes at stake.

On 29th November in Paris, the French NCP organised a conference on the CEAS. The next day there was a EMN-Cluster Meeting on reception conditions for asylum seekers in the EU: "existing mechanisms and good practices”

This seminar aims at analyzing the state of play in Belgium in terms of prevention and protection of child victims or at risk of FGM and promoting the thinking about the implementation in Belgium of a protocol for the prevention and protection of such persons.

The Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) achieved a Political Agreement on the Reception Conditions Directive, discussed recent developments in Syria and council conclusions were endorsed concerning the new EU strategy to combat human trafficking.

On 23 October, Maggie De Block answered many questions inter alia related to the European platform for the repatriation of unaccompanied minors (ERPUM).

The Belgian Council of Ministers decided to provide a subsidy to finance prefabricated schools in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. The assistance is provided in the framework of the policy on conflict prevention of Foreign Affairs.

Today in a report on the situation of unaccompanied minors in the EU, the Commission calls for improved efforts at both national and European level to respond effectively and in full respect of the rights of the child to this complex transnational challenge.

The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) gave the green light to an agreement to recast the Reception Conditions Directive.

EASO plans to organize a series of sessions on unaccompanied minors and age assessment in 2012. One of these expert meeting is planned in Brussels, focusing on X-ray and other medical evidence. It is possible for relevant actors involved in the field of unaccompanied minors to participate.

The law of January 19, 2012 introduced the concept of a “return track” for asylum seekers, a framework for individual counseling on return, offered by the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil). New instructions implement this return track in the reception centres.