Poland will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of June 2025. Its programme focuses on strengthening European security in its many dimensions. In the field of justice and home affairs, Poland aims inter alia to counter the instrumentalisation of migration by Russia and Belarus.

From 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2026, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) will support Belgium to increase the capacities of the national asylum and reception authorities. Asylum support teams will be deployed to support the registration and processing of cases as well as the design, update and implementation of specific systems and tools. 

The system that will register entry, exit and refusal of entry information of third country nationals crossing the external borders of the Schengen area will come into operation, by 2020 at the latest.

In December of this year, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons was asked by the Belgian government to carry out an independent enquiry on the fate of the Sudanese nationals who recently returned to their country of origin.

A the beginning of December 2017, the European Commission has published the common "Return Handbook". It provides Member States with common guidelines, best practices and recommendations to be used by Member States' competent authorities when carrying out return-related tasks. 

At the beginning of December 2017, IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), jointly with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and with the guidance of GMDAC’s Advisory Board, developed the first global Migration Data Portal. The Portal aims to serve as a unique access point to timely and comprehensive migration statistics.

UNHCR is actively working to organize more life-saving refugee evacuations to Niger in the coming weeks and months, and calls for 1,300 resettlement places to be made available by the end of March 2018 for highly vulnerable refugees stranded in Libya.

Join the Asylum and Migration Policy Event of the Belgian Contact Point of the EMN in order to discuss the main developments of the year 2017 in the fields of migration and asylum in Belgium. 

Today, the Belgian Contact Point of the European Migration Network organized its national conference, which focused on the main developments in the field of migration and asylum that took place in Belgium in 2017.

Today the Commission adopted a new communication requiring immediate action from the EU and Member States to disrupt the modus operandi of traffickers, strengthen victims' rights and intensify EU internal and external efforts to provide a coordinated and consistent response.

Myria launches today the 8th edition of Myriatics. This edition sheds light on immigrations from foreigners to Belgium. It reflects inter alia on the position of EU-28 citizens within total immigrations to Belgium, as well as on the increasing importance of Syria as country of origin of immigrants to Belgium.

This full day conference will provide an opportunity to exchange information on family reunification schemes, in Ireland and abroad. Drawing on the findings of a recently published European Migration Network study the family reunification policy frameworks operational elsewhere in the EU will be discussed and compared.

On Wednesday afternoon in Brussels, Theo Francken, State Secretary for Asylum Policy and Migration, as well as the President of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Belgium and the representatives of the recognized cults in Belgium launched together a humanitarian corridor to accommodate 150 Syrian asylum seekers in optimal conditions.

Today an amending regulation came into force, establishing a new common design and enhanced security features for residence permit cards in the EU.

The Global Conference on Cities and Migration was held on 16-17 November 2017 in Mechelen, Belgium. Local and regional actors requested to be recognized as key actors in migration management and policy making.

The Migration Policy Institute Europe (MPI Europe), the United States Mission to the European Union, the Mission of Canada to the European Union, and the European Economic and Social Committee will organise a conference on 'Social innovation for refugee inclusion: Maintaining momentum and creating lasting change'. 

The Belgian government and the city of Mechelen host a global conference on cities and migration in order to identify actionable recommendations on cooperation for migration governance at local and national levels.

Belgium has made progress in a number of areas to combat human trafficking and has managed a considerable number of convictions of perpetrators. Improvements are expected inter alia to enhance the identification of child victims and prevent the disappearances of unaccompanied children. 

This conference aims to explore the complexity and significance of the migratory phenomenon in the world to come. Key speakers will contribute to the conference.

A joint European Migration Network & OECD event will take place on 9th November 2017. Two thematic sessions are presented within this full-day event: "Challenges and good practices in family migration policies" and "Illegal employment of third-country nationals in the EU: Challenges and solutions".