Today, 10 families with a humanitarian visa arrived in Zaventem. They will apply for international protection once in Belgium. They will be hosted in Christian communities, in cooperation with Caritas, during the first year.

Home Affairs Ministers met in Brussels and discussed inter alia the Dublin reform which gripped the political center stage of the broader asylum debate.

On the 31st of May and 1st of June, the Bulgarian Contact Point of the EMN - in the framework of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council - organized the EMN Annual Conference. The conference was dedicated to  challenges and success factors in managing migration flows. 

The results of the third sociomonitoring report, published in December 2017, will be presented by the Federal Public Service Employment and Unia, in order to better understand the situation of persons on the labour market according to their origin.

On the occasion of the world refugee day, many activities are planned in Belgium. Informal meetings, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and other events are proposed in different cities to celebrate and share this special day!

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. 

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.

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.

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

On the occasion of the publication of its annual report "Migration in rights and numbers: family life in jeopardy", Myria organizes a conference in the Belgian Senate on June 26.     

This interesting conference is organised by the German Contact Point of the EMN. It aims to bring together policy-makers, academics and actors from NGOs and administration in Germany and at EU-level. Therefore, the conference covers a wide range of topics ranging from the arrival of unaccompanied minors to the transition to adulthood.

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.

The 15th IMISCOE Annual Conference will take place in Barcelona, 2 - 4 July 2018. The conference covers the theme "Europe, migrations and the Mediterranean: human mobilities and intercultural challenges". 

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.

Each year, the Odysseus Network organizes a summer school in EU immigration and asylum law and policy. The courses tackle the most recent legislative, jurisprudential and political developments in the field at EU level.  

This conference is entitled 'Sustainable migrration from poor to rich countries - Towards a new refugee and migration system?'. It will address the challenges and sustainability of today’s migration. There is a growing call for a more holistic and sustainable approach to migration policy.

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.                                      

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.

Voluntary returns to the countries of origin are decreasing. Among others, this is the result of the lower number of asylum applications the past two years.  

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).    

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.

The European Commission proposes to reform the EU's common visa policy. It also reports on - and calls for - further progress under the European Agenda on Migration. Finally it mobilises additional funding for Syrian refugees in Turkey.