01 January 2018
Bulgaria has released its programme and priorities for its six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU. Both IOM and UNHCR have published recommendations to the Bulgarian Presidency.
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Main Theme: Asylum, Migration
Keywords: Bulgarian Presidency
29 December 2017
The system that will register entry, exit and refusal of entry information of third country nationals crossing the external borders of the Schengen area will come into operation, by 2020 at the latest.
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Main Theme: Borders & Visa
Keywords: entry exit system, smart border
22 December 2017
In December of this year, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons was asked by the Belgian government to carry out an independent enquiry on the fate of the Sudanese nationals who recently returned to their country of origin.
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Main Theme: Return & Readmission
Keywords: CGRS
19 December 2017
A the beginning of December 2017, the European Commission has published the common "Return Handbook". It provides Member States with common guidelines, best practices and recommendations to be used by Member States' competent authorities when carrying out return-related tasks.
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Main Theme: Return & Readmission
Keywords: EU Action Plan on Return
15 December 2017
At the beginning of December 2017, IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), jointly with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and with the guidance of GMDAC’s Advisory Board, developed the first global Migration Data Portal. The Portal aims to serve as a unique access point to timely and comprehensive migration statistics.
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Main Theme: Data & Statistics, Migration
Keywords: migration statistics
08 December 2017
UNHCR is actively working to organize more life-saving refugee evacuations to Niger in the coming weeks and months, and calls for 1,300 resettlement places to be made available by the end of March 2018 for highly vulnerable refugees stranded in Libya.
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Main Theme: Asylum
Keywords: resettlement, Lybia, Niger
05 December 2017
Today, the Belgian Contact Point of the European Migration Network organized its national conference, which focused on the main developments in the field of migration and asylum that took place in Belgium in 2017.
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Main Theme: Asylum, Reception, International Protection, Migration
Keywords: EMN conference
04 December 2017
Today the Commission adopted a new communication requiring immediate action from the EU and Member States to disrupt the modus operandi of traffickers, strengthen victims' rights and intensify EU internal and external efforts to provide a coordinated and consistent response.
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Main Theme: Smuggling & Trafficking
28 November 2017
Myria launches today the 8th edition of Myriatics. This edition sheds light on immigrations from foreigners to Belgium. It reflects inter alia on the position of EU-28 citizens within total immigrations to Belgium, as well as on the increasing importance of Syria as country of origin of immigrants to Belgium.
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Main Theme: Asylum, Migration
Keywords: asylum flow, immigration flow
22 November 2017
On Wednesday afternoon in Brussels, Theo Francken, State Secretary for Asylum Policy and Migration, as well as the President of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Belgium and the representatives of the recognized cults in Belgium launched together a humanitarian corridor to accommodate 150 Syrian asylum seekers in optimal conditions.
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Main Theme: International Protection
Keywords: humanitarian visa
21 November 2017
Today an amending regulation came into force, establishing a new common design and enhanced security features for residence permit cards in the EU.
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Main Theme: Integration, Migration
17 November 2017
The Global Conference on Cities and Migration was held on 16-17 November 2017 in Mechelen, Belgium. Local and regional actors requested to be recognized as key actors in migration management and policy making.
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Main Theme: Migration
Keywords: global compact on migration
16 November 2017
Belgium has made progress in a number of areas to combat human trafficking and has managed a considerable number of convictions of perpetrators. Improvements are expected inter alia to enhance the identification of child victims and prevent the disappearances of unaccompanied children.
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Main Theme: Smuggling & Trafficking
Keywords: GRETA
09 November 2017
A joint European Migration Network & OECD event exploring the topics of family migration and illegal employment took place in Brussels on 9 November 2017.
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Main Theme: Economic migration, Family reunification, Irregular Migration
Keywords: EMN conference
02 November 2017
As of 2 November 2017, family members of foreign nationals who obtained a long term resident status in another Member State and reside in Belgium will not have to obtain a work permit if the long term residents themselves do not require such a permit.
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Main Theme: Family reunification
Keywords: long term resident
26 October 2017
On the 26th of October 2017 the general policy note on asylum and migration of the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration was published. The policy note provides an overview of the main achievements and priorities in the field of asylum and migration.
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05 October 2017
Today, the Belgian National Contact Point of the European Migration Network organized an event in Brussels to discuss the irregular employment of third country nationals.
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Main Theme: Economic migration, Irregular Migration, Return & Readmission
Keywords: illegal employment, migrant worker
04 October 2017
Today a new law was published on the fight against false declarations of parenthood. The Law of 19 September 2017 modifies the Civil Code, the Immigration Law, the Judicial Code and the Consular Code, and it includes preventive and repressive measures.
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Main Theme: Family reunification
Keywords: False declaration of parenthood, marriage of convenience
04 October 2017
In the summer of 2017, more and more transit migrants, who wish to go to the UK, were staying in the Maximilian park in Brussels. The Belgian government did not want this park to become ‘a new Calais’. A number of transit migrants were intercepted and detained. Because a lot of them were presumed Sudanese, a Sudanese delegation was invited to come to Belgium for identification. Left-wing politicians and NGOs stressed that the Sudanese regime’s human rights record is particularly worrying. Campaigns were organised to better inform the transit migrants. On 04.10.2017 these issues were debated in the Belgian Parliament.
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Main Theme: Irregular Migration
Keywords: transit migrants, transit migration
27 September 2017
The European Commission published a mid-term review of what has been achieved so far in delivering the European Agenda on Migration. It also sets out new initiatives from the Commission to address key areas, and identifies where further efforts are needed in the coming months.
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27 September 2017
In order to preserve and strengthen the Schengen area, the Commission is proposing to update the Schengen Borders Code to adapt the rules for the reintroduction of temporary internal border controls to the current needs to respond to evolving and persistent serious threats to public policy or internal security.
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Main Theme: Borders & Visa
Keywords: Schengen
22 September 2017
In the framework of the Estonian Presidency of the Council, the Estonian Contact Point of the EMN organized the annual EMN conference on 21 and 22 september in Tallinn. The event gathered key stakeholders who discussed good practices and challenges in attracting and retaining talents in the EU and in the Member States.
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Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: EMN Annual Conference, Estonia, talent
13 September 2017
Today, President Jean-Claude Juncker presented next steps towards a stronger, more effective and fairer EU migration and asylum policy.
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Main Theme: Asylum, Migration
Keywords: State of the Union
06 September 2017
The judgment in joined cases C-643/15 and C-647/15 Slovakia and Hungary v Council has been delivered by the Court, calling Member States to respect the emergency relocation scheme for refugees, initiated by the EU at the height of the migration crisis
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Main Theme: International Protection
Keywords: solidarity, relocation
01 September 2017
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), published data on recent arrivals in Europe. Compared with the 273,000 migrants who landed from January through Aug. 27, 2016, about 121,000 arrived during the same period this year. Furthermore, there was no evidence of any migrant dying in the Mediterranean since Aug. 9