As of 9 December 2024, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons will temporarily suspend processing cases of applicants originating from Syria. Planned personal interviews will be cancelled and assessments will be temporarily put on hold.

The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration has announced that she would use all possible means to reduce the number of applications from persons who already have protection in another EU Member State. She intends to oppose the Council for Aliens Law Litigation's rulings leading to the admissibility of these applications and the recognition of a protected status.

On 26 November 2024, the European Commission launched a new programme to support a Talent Partnership between the EU and Pakistan. The programme, that is funded with EUR 3 million from the EU, will enable the EU, its Member States, and Pakistan to develop a coherent set of actions on labour mobility and skills development.

This conference is dedicated to exploring how to maximize the benefits of external cooperation in the field of migration. A wide range of national and international experts, including policymakers from EU and non-EU countries, practitioners and researchers, will engage in discussions around the challenges and components of effective migration partnerships, exploring opportunities for balanced as well as comprehensive cooperation and innovative approaches.

The High-Level Committee on Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission held its first meeting on 7 November 2024. It will help the Commission define the EU’s two-year Plan that will determine the number of refugees to be admitted to the EU, and the countries and regions from which resettlements and humanitarian admissions should take place. 

Nicole de Moor said that applications relating to 859 persons have already been processed in accelerated procedure since February 2024. In 96 % of cases, applicants were not granted protection status. Ms de Moor wants to focus more on prevention to prevent people who do not need protection from applying for international protection in Belgium.

As of 24 October 2024, the centre for registering applications for international protection is located at rue Belliard 68 in 1000 Brussels. Applications can still be registered in the Pacheco building until Wednesday, 23 October 2024.

On 21 October 2024, the European Ombudsman closed her inquiry on respect for human rights in the context of the EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). She concluded, inter alia, that the Commission should set out the criteria on which the suspension of contracts due to violations of human rights in the implementation of EU-funded projects in Tunisia would be based. These criteria should be made public.

In a recent judgement in Case C‑134/23, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified that Article 38 of Directive 2013/32/EU does not preclude legislation of a Member State designating a third country as generally safe for certain categories of applicants for international protection, even if that third country has suspended, in general terms and without any prospect of a contrary development, the admission or readmission of those applicants to its territory.

In a recent judgement, the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that some of the discriminatory measures against women in Afghanistan, namely forced marriage and the lack of protection against gender-based violence and domestic violence, must be classified alone as "acts of persecution" and that other measures, taken as a whole, given their cumulative effect and the fact that they are applied deliberately and systematically, constitute such acts.

The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS) announced on 2 October 2024 that the notification of decisions granting or refusing subsidiary protection status to applicants from Lebanon is suspended until the CGRS has sufficient objective information to assess the security situation in Lebanon.

On 1 October 2024, Nicole de Moor stated that proportionally speaking, more Palestinian applicants for international protection come to Belgium than to other European Member States. She also confirmed that the protection rate for Palestinian applicants had increased in recent years.

The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) released the latest asylum trends for the first half of 2024. By June 2024, EU countries had received 513.000 applications for international protection. While the figure remained stable compared to the first six months of 2023, some changes occurred at the national level.

Cindy Ngamba, a 25-year-old Cameroonian refugee living in the United Kingdom, won the bronze medal in the boxing discipline at the Paris Olympics. She is the first athlete in any sport to secure a medal while representing the refugee team.

On 9 July, almost 100 NGOs, which include ECRE and several ECRE member organisations, published a joint statement urging all EU Member States to guarantee the right to seek and enjoy asylum and uphold their commitments to the international refugee protection system.

The Immigration Office disclosed a new website aimed at informing applicants for international protection about the purpose and course of the registration. Each step of the process is explained in 16 languages via texts, audio, and videos. The website was co-funded by the European Union.

On 13 June 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union released its judgment in the case C-563/22 involving a stateless Palestinian mother and her child, registered with UNRWA, who left the Gaza strip to seek protection in Bulgaria. In this case, the Court provided guidance on the interpretation of Article 12(1)(a) of Directive 2011/95/EU and of Article 40(1) of Directive 2013/32/EU. 

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.