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.

The government Di Rupo published on 1 December 2011 its coalition agreement. We summarize the most important political goals of the new government with regard to migration and asylum

Eurostat presents its report 'Migrants in Europe - A Statistical Portrait of the First and Second Generation'

The report of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (Centre) offers facts and figures on migration flows to Belgium up to 2009

On December, 20, 2011,The Directive 2011/95/EC was published. The Qualification directive sets standards for the identification of people in need of international protection in the EU either as refugees or as beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.

Three Belgian NGO's (Ciré, Flemish Refugee Action & BCHR) are organizing a serial of three seminars on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Convention

On 16 December 2011, the Council of Ministers prolonged the temporary provisions concerning restrictions of free access to the labour market for Bulgarian and Romanian workers till 31 December 2013

National Conference of the Bulgarian National Contact Point of the EMN on 13 December 2011 in Sofia

ECtHR finds Belgium violated Article 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining a mother and three children during asylum procedure

Directive 2011/98/EC is a directive on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State

The Flemish Support Point Labour and Social Economy organizes together with the Flemish Department Labour and Social Economy the 5th Labour Market Congress with a focus on Labour Migration

The Flemish organisation 'Kruispunt M-I' invites for its study day on Partner Migration. The organisation will define major challenges for the migration policy on grounds of recent research

This seminar organised by the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Brussels, focusses on highskilled employers migration waves of third countries.

The Service 'Roma and Travellers' of the Regional Ingetration Centre 'Foyer' in Brussels organise a study day on the topic of Roma living in the Brussels region

In the framework of the formation of a Federal Government, Ms Maggie De Block (Open-VLD) has been appointed as State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Policy and Social Integration. Ms De Block has been sworn in on 6 December 2011

The European Policy Centre and the European Programme for Integration and Migration are organising this Conference on 6 December that will explore issues around the rights of migrants, particularly those who are undocumented, and the role of the media in the migration and integration debate

The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (‘Centre’) organizes a colloquium on the problematic of so called ‘reverse discrimination’ concerning the new national law on family reunification.

Every month, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons publishes a document containing the statistics on the asylum applications and the decisions taken.