The International Organization for Migration (IOM) looks forward to cooperating with the Belgian and Hungarian Presidencies of the Council of the European Union and stands ready to offer its continued support and expertise. With a view to building this partnership, the IOM publishes some recommendations on migration and mobility for 2024.

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.

For the next six months, Belgium will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a position it hasn't held since 2010. The Belgian Presidency will be particularly important as it will steer the debates on the European Council’s Strategic Agenda and lead up to the European Parliament elections in June 2024.

As of today, 1 January 2024, the people of Kosovo with biometric passports no longer require visas when travelling for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period to all 27 Schengen Area countries.