The general policy note focuses on three pillars:

• Develop a clear legal framework and make residence permit procedures more efficient, through a new Migration Code
• Reinforce and increase efficiency at the operational level thanks to the results and recommendations of the audit
• Intensify the common European policy, among others through the preparations linked to the Belgian Presidency

These three pillars concentrate on nine main lines:

• Respect for international law and treaties: the government intends to conclude and enforce the conventions and agreements, treaties and memoranda that promote the stability and predictability that migrants and authorities need. It will also ensure that it respects its international and European obligations and the rights of applicants for international protection, in particular people who have the right to reception within the framework of an asylum procedure.
   
• European cooperation: the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2024 will, among other things, make it possible to continue negotiations on the asylum and migration pact. In collaboration with like-minded countries, concrete actions will also be taken to encourage the Commission and other Member States to make Dublin a functional concept again. Belgium also intends to make concrete progress in the discussions relating to the European Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management, which sets the main lines of a system based on clear rules in terms of solidarity and responsibility.
   
• Effective institutions within a clear legislative framework: the migration code will be finalized during this legislature. Asylum and migration services will be strengthened and made more efficient on the basis of the results and recommendations of the audit carried out from October 2021 to the summer of 2022. Among other things, actions will be carried out in terms of recruitment, digitization (eMigration), accessibility (website and infodesk) and integration of asylum and migration services. The Interministerial Conference on Migration and Integration (CIM) will soon work on activation and economic migration. Work will also continue with a view to publishing all available recent migration figures on an accessible website (Migration.be). Finally, Belgium is ready for the entry into force of the Entry Exit System (EES) scheduled for May 2023.
   
• Offer protection to those who need it: in particular to the most vulnerable groups, to applicants for international protection, beneficiaries of temporary protection, resettled refugees, victims of smuggling and trafficking in human beings, unaccompanied minors, stateless persons and victims of gender-based violence.
   
• Quality reception in a flexible reception model: efforts will be made to create additional reception places (by tackling the problems of infrastructure and lack of staff), and to better manage incoming flows (among other things via prevention campaigns) and increase outgoing flows from the reception network (among other things via an increase in the processing capacity of asylum authorities).
   
• A migration policy as added value: the processing time for student visa applications and renewal of student stay will be points of attention, as well as the risks of abuse within the framework of the student migration procedure. With regard to economic migration, the transposition of the revised Blue Card Directive will be a priority. Additional measures will also be taken to ensure that employees are fully aware of their rights in the labour market and can exercise them to the best of their ability. With regard to short stays, a digital address notification system is planned, which will allow the authorities to have precise information at all times on the people who have returned to their country of origin and those who have remained in the territory. In terms of family reunification, adaptations will be made in accordance with the government agreement. Finally, a simple and rapid procedure will be put in place for citizens of the Union.
   
• Fight against irregular stay: a draft law enabling the full implementation of a proactive return policy will be submitted to the Chamber this year. This provides for specific return routes for the different target groups, with a different approach depending on the target group. In addition, pilot projects for the reception and orientation of irregularly staying persons will be started. Migrants in transit will remain a point of attention, being the subject of information campaigns and actions carried out in consultation with the French, British, Dutch and German authorities on this subject. Efforts will be made to reduce the backlog and achieve a normal pace of work on humanitarian regularization requests. Finally, measures will be taken to limit secondary migratory flows as much as possible (campaigns, etc.).
   
• Fight against abuse, threats to public order and misuse: the fraud coordinator appointed at the Immigration Office will collect all findings of fraud and abuse from the various departments of the Immigration Office and will examine the measures likely to remedy this. All partners, including municipalities and local authorities, will be made aware of and supported in this context.
   
• Activation and acquisition of skills: Activation strategies will be continued to guide applicants for international protection, if not directly to the labor market, at least to training courses or voluntary work. General support will be structurally provided in the reception centres. Regional coaches will be responsible to establish links between applicants, reception centres, external partners and the labor market. Relations with VDAB, Forem and Actiris will be strengthened. Targeted partnerships are also concluded with major professional organizations and companies.

For more detailed information, please read the general policy note on asylum and migration.