Belgian government approves reduction of available reception places for asylum seekers

As part of the implementation of the government agreement of October 2014 as well as of the new reception scheme, the reduction of available reception places for asylum seekers has been approved by the Council of Ministers of 11 December 2014.

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The proposal to diminish the number of available reception places for asylum seekers has been initiated by the Minister of Security and Interior, Jan Jambon and the State Secretary for Asylum Policy and Migration, Theo Francken.

It follows the decision to reduce the budget of the Belgian authority responsible for asylum seekers’ reception conditions and facilities, Fedasil. These orientations take into account the new reception scheme which intends to strengthen coherence between asylum and migration policies, as well as strategic priorities of the new management plan and of the government agreement from October 2014.

The government agreement foresees for 2015 a reduction of 2,057 reception places. Among them, 845 will become buffer places and 1212 will effectively be closed.

Consequently, 18.829 places will remain available, and out of these, 16,636 are effective places and 2,193 are buffer places kept in order to face a potential influx of asylum-seekers.

Read the press release of the 11 December Council of Ministers (in French).