Policy Event EMN Belgium 2019

On 10 December 2019, EMN Belgium organized its annual asylum and migration policy event in which recent national and EU developments in the field of international protection, legal migration and integration, and irregular migration and return were discussed. 

During the event, participants and panelists examined and discussed man developments in the fields of asylum and migration in Belgium and the EU in the last year. The event gathered over 170 key stakeholders from different organisations active in the field of migration and asylum (such as public bodies, academic institutions, NGOs, IOs, etc.).  

The conference started with an inspiring keynote speech by Mr Jean-Louis De Brouwer; who was successively director in charge of immigration policies, employment policies and humanitarian aid policies at the European Commission and is currently a lecturer and director of the European Affairs Programme at the Egmont Institute.
 

In the session on international protection a brief overview of national trends and figures on applications for international protection and reception was provided by Mr Peter Van Costenoble and Ms Martine Hendrickx, followed by a presentation by Mr Ward Lutin of EASO on the operational support to frontline Member States and on ad hoc disembarkations. Mr Minos Mouzourakis of ECRE reflected on the future of Dublin and CEAS. Finally the recent EMN publication on beneficiaries of international protection travelling back to the country of origin was presented by Ms Ina Vandenberghe and a comparative reflection was provided by Mr Janne Grote of EMN Germany.

 

In het afternoon the recent trends and figures on legal migration and integration in Belgium were presented by Ms Jessy Carton, followed by a comparative overview of new policies in the field of economic migration in the different regions. This interesting overview was given by Ms Jo Antoons and Ms Rimma Abadjan of Fragomen’s Brussels Office, a law firm specialised in immigration. Furthermore the upcoming EMN publication on pathways to citizenship was presented by Professor Patrick Wautelet of the University of Liège.

In the last session on irregular migration and return, the recent figures on return were highlighted by Mr David Vogel. Ms Nina Roox and Ms Elizabeth Mensah from the federal migration centre Myria presented a report on migrants in transit on their way to the UK. Finally the day was ended with a focus on the nexus between migration, return and development by Mr Erwan Marteil, who works for the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission, and by Ms Raffaella Greco Tonegutti from the Belgian Development Agency Enabel.

Pictures of the conference can be found by clicking here. For the presentations, please see below. 

Publication Date: Mon 16 Dec 2019
Geography:
Keywords:
Main theme:
Commissioner:
News type: