In a press release published today, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, kicked off the development of a new software that will help manage the stay of third-country nationals in closed centres. The system aims to significantly reduce administrative work.

Today, an email is sent manually twice a day from the 6 closed centers to the main administration in Brussels with the number of available places. With the new system, the number of free places in the closed centers will be known in real time.

The system will also keep track of information about identity, disciplinary measures, medical needs, etc. Today, information often has to be shared via email or re-entered in different systems.

The system is part of the global digitalisation process eMigration that Nicole de Moor is rolling out for the Immigration Department, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons and the the Council for Alien Law Litigation. In the long term, the system aims to lead to efficiency gains at the scale of all services, allowing files to be processed more quickly.

For further information, please read in Dutch the press release from the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration.