The Royal Decree of 23 April 2018 introduced changes with regards to extending or ending the stay of international students. It details – inter alia – in which cases an order to leave the territory can be issued to a student when he/she extends his/her studies in an excessive manner considering the results.

In this report, the Commission is reporting on progress made under the European Agenda on Migration and the Commission's roadmap from December 2017, and is setting out further key actions to be taken.

Eurostat published a statistical analysis on the number of unaccompanied minors who applied for international protection in 2017. the 31,400 applications represent an important decrease compared to previous years. 

The panel discussion will present the findings of the recently completed research project of the European Foundation for Democracy which examined how different European countries with high numbers of refugees and/or experience of integrating high numbers of refugees are managing the integration process and identifies good practices for integrating refugees. The research looked in particular at the situation of Syrian refugees in Europe, though not exclusively.

48 winning journalists will receive EU-funded contracts to produce a story focused on diaspora, labour migration, vulnerable groups or legal and irregular migration to counterbalance the narrative on migration.

In 2018, the European Migration Network (EMN) celebrates its 10 year anniversary. On this occasion, the EMN organized a conference on 15 May in Brussels.

This conference aims to provide legal practitioners with an update on recent developments in the EU legal migration system and the mechanisms put in place to tackle labour and skills shortages and to reinforce the attractiveness of the EU for key workers

Commissioner Avramopoulos has congratulated the EMN on it's approaching 10th anniversary in a speech. 

In a judgment handed down today, the EU Court of Justice responded to a Dutch prejudicial question on family reunification of (unaccompanied minor) refugees. Following the reasoning of the Court, an unaccompanied minor who attains the age of majority during the asylum procedure retains its right to family reunification.

Following the release of its EASO Guidance on reception conditions: operational standards and indicators in December 2016, EASO has just issued the EASO guidance on contingency planning in the context of reception.

To raise awareness about illegal employment of third-country nationals in Belgium and the EU, and to draw attention to the EMN studies on this subject, the Belgian Contact Point of the EMN has made a short video.                                      

Two United Nations agencies are joining forces to combat migrant smuggling. They organized an event centering on a Joint Platform on Countering Migrant Smuggling.

Following the adoption of the Cooperation Agreement on the Single Permit Procedure on 2 February 2018, different legislative texts have been adopted at the federal and regional levels in March 2018 to approve this Cooperation Agreement.

The government approved on 24 March 2018 a new reduction plan for reception places for applicants for international protection. Today the reception network consists of 23,815 reception places. This should be reduced to 16,629 reception places in 2019, of which 10,044 collective places and 6,585 individual reception places. With this plan, the network returns to the level preceding the reception crisis.

In February, Fedasil, the federal agency in charge of the reception of asylum seekers, has signed a framework agreement with the Belgian development agency, Enabel (www.enabel.be).

Today Eurostat published the 2017 statistics on 'Asylum in the EU' on its website. It covers main trends and characteristics of first time applicants and first instance decisions on asylum applications for 2017 in the EU.

At the height of the refugee “crisis” in October 2015, over 7,000 asylum seekers crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece per day. This created problematic conditions for refugees in reception centers and overwhelmed Greece as a first country of entry to the EU. In this setting, the EU-Turkey Statement was concluded with the aim of managing migration across the Aegean Sea and curbing arrivals to the EU. Whilst the Statement was effective in reducing the number of arrivals, it has been met with a series of human rights concerns.