On the occasion of International Volunteer Day, Fedasil highlights the importance of volunteers who give their time to residents in reception centres and of sponsors who create links with these residents outside of the centres. If you have free time, join them and contact a reception centre in your neighbourhood!

The Federal Institute for Human Rights launched an investigation into "the growing tendency of Belgian authorities not to implement court decisions that condemn them", inter alia regarding the reception of applicants for international protection. The report following the investigation will be sent to the Chamber of Representatives.

Fedasil announced that the Belgian reception network has now a higher capacity than that recorded during the asylum crisis of 2015-2016. However, this capacity is insufficient to accommodate all applicants for international protection who are entitled to reception. At present, 2.650 single men are still on the waiting list for a reception place.

Fedasil announced that it can temporarily make use of centres in Bredene (Flanders) and in Theux (Wallonia) to accommodate applicants for international protection until March 2025. Both sites have already been used by Fedasil in the past, each time for a period of a few months. 

Fedasil has a budget for financing specific projects relating to the reception of asylum seekers (and other reception beneficiaries). The Agency has launched its call for projects for the year 2025. In 2025, the focus will be on projects that focus on support, activation, and housing.

In their jobs, front-line workers sometimes have to deal with the trauma of applicants for international protection and are confronted with conflicts, tensions and sometimes personal safety risks. Hence, they are exposed to a high risk of personal stress levels and burnout, moral injury, depression, trauma, and other mental health challenges. This conference aims to bring together stakeholders at national and EU level to share experiences, challenges and practical solutions in this field.

After nearly two years of closure, Fedasil’s Info Point reopened on 27 September 2023, at its new location in rue Héger-Bordet, 3. The Info Point offers information and counseling for applicants for international protection living outside the reception network, but also migrants in transit and persons without a residence permit.

In a statement from 19 September 2024, the Council of Europe notes that Belgium has taken steps to address the wider reception crisis (such as creating 3.500 additional reception places and accelerating the examination of certain asylum applications to free up existing reception places), but these measures are insufficient.

The Belgian Red Cross announced the opening of a new reception centre for applicants for international protection in Brussels. It will be able to accommodate up to 360 people.

In the 2024 Rule of Law Report, especially in the country chapter on the rule of law situation in Belgium, the European Commission recommends that Belgium takes measures to ensure compliance by public authorities with final rulings of national courts and the European Court of Human Rights, referring in particular to judgments finding the State responsible for not ensuring adequate reception of asylum seekers.

From 1 July 2024, adult asylum seekers who stay in a reception centre and who have a working income will have to contribute to this reception. Those who do not wish to contribute may consider staying outside the reception centre. They are free to leave the centre and find their own accommodation.

In order to structurally shorten the duration of reception in Belgium, an amendment was made to the Reception Act. Anyone who receives a final negative asylum decision must leave the reception place within a period of 30 days.

Doctors Without Borders, Doctors of the World, CIRÉ, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, BelRefugees, Caritas International, and the Humanitarian Hub underline the permanent lack of reception, protection and access to medical services for applicants for international protection without a reception place. They want to challenge policy-makers and raise public awareness about people left left on the street.

In its 2023 annual report, the Federal Institute for Human Rights draws attention, among other things, to the failure of the authorities to enforce the rulings of the Belgian and European courts and tribunals, in particular in the context of the reception crisis. The lack of resources for the judiciary, threats to human rights defenders and weaknesses in the right to information are also underlined.

On 22 May 2024, a joint conference hosted by Fedasil and the EUAA highlighted innovative collaboration models designed to strengthen migration systems. The event brought together diverse participants from various EU Member States, including government bodies, international organisations, civil society groups, and private entities. It focused on strategies to improve the reception, information provision, and pre-integration of international protection applicants.

The Expert Conference, that is jointly hosted by Belgium’s Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil), and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), in cooperation with the Migration Policy Institute Europe (MPI Europe), aims to explore multi-stakeholder strategies in three specific areas: reception, information provision, and pre-integration.

On Friday 3 May 2024, the Council of Ministers approved a draft royal decree appointing Pieter Spinnewijn as Director General of the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil). His mandate will begin on 1 July 2024 for a period of six years.

Given the strong pressure on the Belgian reception system, Fedasil created more than 3.000 places in 2023. Despite these efforts, Fedasil ran out of places to accommodate all applicants for international protection last year.

On the proposal of the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, the Council of Ministers agreed today to the conclusion of a rental contract for land in Lodelinsart (Charleroi). Fedasil will make the site available to the Belgian Red Cross to place containers in order to increase the reception capacity for applicants for international protection.

A new reception centre that can accommodate a maximum of 135 applicants for international protection has opened in Ghent. This is the second reception centre managed by Fedasil in the city. Since 2020, the Agency has been organizing the reception of 250 people on a pontoon in the port of Ghent.

On 12 December 2018, the Belgian contact point of the EMN organized its annual asylum and migration policy event in which recent national and EU developments in the field of international protection, legal migration and integration and irregular migration, human trafficking and return were discussed.