In case C-646/21, the Court of Justice of the European Union clarified that women, including minors, who share as a common characteristic the fact that they genuinely come to identify with the fundamental value of equality between women and men during their stay in a Member State may be regarded as belonging to ‘a particular social group’, constituting a ‘reason for persecution’ capable of leading to the recognition of refugee status.

The list of safe countries of origin, which is revised once a year, was updated on 12 May 2024 and is now published in Belgium’s Official Journal. At present, the following countries are considered as safe countries of origin: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, India and Moldova. 

In Palestinian cases, several elements prevent the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless persons (CGRS) from taking a decision within the initial six-month period after receiving the application for international protection. The CGRS commits to ensuring that Palestinian cases are processed more quickly and that a decision can be taken within 21 months of the submission of the application for protection.

The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration announced that applications for international protection from people from safe countries of origin have been processed in 12 working days and those from people originating from countries for which a low rate of protection is granted in 39 days, since 1 February 2024. This aims to free up places in the reception network for those who actually need protection. 

On the proposal of Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib and Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor, the Council of Ministers approved a draft royal decree establishing the list of safe countries of origin, now including Moldova.

On 18 March 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) co-organized a conference during which participants reiterated the need for greater convergence between Member States to achieve a fair and efficient asylum system.

According to data collected by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 2023, with at least 8565 deaths and disappearances, is the deadliest year since the project's inception in 2014. IOM highlights the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life. 

In a judgement released today in case C-222/22, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the Qualification Directive does not permit a presumption that any subsequent application based on circumstances which the applicant has created by his or her own decision since leaving the country of origin stems from abusive intent and abuse of the procedure for the grant of international protection. Any subsequent application must be assessed on an individual basis.

The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) announced today that it would resume the processing of Sudanese cases from Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile and Khartoum as of 26 February 2024.

In 2023, 287 refugees were resettled in Belgium, including 154 Congolese from Rwanda, 81 Syrians from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, and 26 Sudanese, 18 Ethiopians and 8 Eritreans from Egypt. 

The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration announced today that applications from nationalities that have very little chance of obtaining international protection, in particular Congolese, Moldovans and Georgians, will be processed in a fast-track procedure from 1 February.

In a press release published today, the UN Refugee Agency called on Belgium and Hungary to use their 2024 European Union (EU) Presidencies as an opportunity to finalize the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and to ensure its protection-sensitive implementation.

While in the past, Somali applicants from southern and central Somalia, with the exception of Mogadishu, were generally granted subsidiary protection status because of the security situation, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) now concludes that no region in Somalia is characterized by an exceptional situation in which the degree of indiscriminate violence is so high that it reaches the "real risk" threshold leading per se to the granting of subsidiary protection.

In a press release published today, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) announced that it would unblock the suspended cases of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and start again to process all Palestinian cases.

At the Global Refugee Forum this week in Geneva, EU Member States announced their collective pledge for 2024 - 2025: 61.000 new places combined for resettlement and humanitarian admission for people in need of international protection. Of these, 31.000 are for resettlement, to be implemented in close cooperation with UNHCR, and 30.000 are for humanitarian admission.

Myria has published the sixth thematic section of its 2023 annual report. This section entitled "International protection" reports that the refusal rate for asylum seekers from Afghanistan in 2022 is higher in Belgium (56%) than the average for EU countries (47%). In the event of return, some Afghan asylum seekers could risk degrading or even inhuman treatment (prohibited by Article 3 of the ECHR), given the current situation in Afghanistan.

The European Commission is presenting today a set of good practices to help Member States implement in the most effective way the actions to which they have committed under the Dublin Roadmap. 

The Court of Justice of the European Union has released two judgements today, respectively in Case C‑374/22 and in Case C‑614/22, where specific provisions of Directive 2011/95/EU must be interpreted as not requiring the Member States to grant the parent of a child who has refugee status in a Member State the right to international protection in that Member State.

The German Contact Point to the European Migration Network (EMN), in cooperation with the BAMF, organises a conference on "Resettlement, Humanitarian Admission, and Complementary Pathways to Refugee Protection". Current national and European developments and challenges in the field will be discussed with a variety of national and international guests.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among people in Guinea of the dangers of irregular migration, such as the risk of exploitation and dangerous crossings. People are also made aware of local employment opportunities and legal migration channels.

The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) announced on 20 October 2023 that the notification of decisions granting or refusing subsidiary protection status to applicants from Gaza and the West Bank is suspended until the CGRS has sufficient objective information to assess the security situation in the Palestinian territories accurately.