04 October 2023
The department "Alternatives To Detention" (ATD) from the Immigration Office organises walk-in counters for illegally staying persons who wish to receive ICAM coaching, every Wednesday from 9 until 12h in Brussels, Antwerp and Liège.
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Main Theme: Irregular Migration
Keywords: individual case management, durable solution, illegally staying person
29 September 2023
On the proposal of the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor, the Council of Ministers approved today a draft royal decree relating to the granting of material assistance to applicants for international protection benefiting from professional income.
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Main Theme: Reception
Keywords: material assistance, professional income, reception cost
28 September 2023
During the Justice and Home Affairs Council today, Ministers inter alia supported the need to strengthen the external dimension of EU migration policy in order to face the migratory challenges the EU shares with other continents and countries.
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Main Theme: Cross-sectional
Keywords: EU Migration Policy, New Pact on Migration and Asylum, crisis regulation, temporary protection
27 September 2023
As part of an investigation into acts of trafficking in human beings, 30 brothels in the northern district of Brussels have been placed under judicial seal. 25 people were subject to judicial arrest and 23 others were administratively deprived of their liberty.
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Main Theme: Smuggling & Trafficking
Keywords: sexual exploitation, human trafficking
26 September 2023
A Belgian expert participated in the conference of the Austrian Contact Point to the European Migration Network (EMN) focusing on opportunities and challenges in the management of EU's external borders. Participants inter alia identified the weaponization of migration as a major challenge concerning the protection of EU's external borders.
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22 September 2023
On the proposal of the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor, the Council of Ministers agreed today that people who live outside the reception network receive information and support from Fedasil. The Council of Ministers approved an action plan and funding for this purpose.
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Main Theme: Reception
Keywords: Fedasil, socio-legal support
21 September 2023
For 10 years now, the Duo for a Job association has aimed inter alia to help eliminate inequalities in access to the labour market for young people with a migrant background. Results are conclusive as seven out of ten young people successfully find a stable job, an internship or training that leads them to the job they initially wanted.
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Main Theme: Integration
Keywords: labour market access, mentoring
21 September 2023
In its judgment in Case C-143/22 | ADDE and Others, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled today that the Return Directive applies to any third-country national who has entered the territory of a Member State without fulfilling the conditions of entry, stay or residence. That also applies when the person concerned has entered that territory even before crossing a border crossing point where such checks are carried out.
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Main Theme: Return & Readmission
Keywords: return directive, internal border control
19 September 2023
The European Commission is proposing today to further extend the temporary protection for people fleeing Russia's aggression against Ukraine from 4 March 2024 to 3 March 2025. This Commission proposal will now have to be adopted by the Council.
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Main Theme: Asylum
Keywords: Temporary Protection Directive, Ukraine
17 September 2023
The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor is already making it clear that Belgium will not respond positively to the request for relocation of migrants who have arrived in Lampedusa. This position is mainly explained by the shortage of reception places in Belgium.
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Main Theme: Asylum
Keywords: relocation
15 September 2023
The Belgian Contact Point to the European Migration Network is looking for an intern to support the team in its mission, including in the framework of the 2024 Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. If you want to expand your knowledge on asylum and migration topics as well as your network in this field, this opportunity may be for you!
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Main Theme: Cross-sectional
Keywords: internship
15 September 2023
The Ombudsman is asking whether the Commission conducted a human rights impact assessment before signing the agreement, if periodic reviews will be conducted during implementation, and if there are criteria for suspending funding in case of human rights violations.
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Main Theme: External Dimension
Keywords: fundamental rights, Tunisia, irregular migration
14 September 2023
Frontex revealed today that the number of detections of irregular border crossings at EU’s external borders rose by one fifth (+18%) in the first eight months of 2023 to over 232 350 and that this increase was primarily driven by the number of arrivals through the Central Mediterranean, which remains the main migratory route into the EU.
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Main Theme: Borders & Visa
Keywords: irregular border crossing, external border, migratory route
13 September 2023
The organisation reports a huge increase in the number of vulnerable young asylum seekers who disappear in Belgium. The number of disappearances could double this year, compared to 2022 which had 136 cases.
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Main Theme: Vulnerable groups
Keywords: unaccompanied minors, disappearance
13 September 2023
Today, the Council of State ruled that the use of the extreme emergency procedure was justified and that the decision not to offer shelter to single male asylum seekers violates the right to reception that asylum seekers have by law.
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Main Theme: Reception
Keywords: reception law, reception directive, right to reception
13 September 2023
In her 2023 State of the Union Address, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, focused inter alia on migration issues. She underlined that an agreement on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum has never been so close.
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Main Theme: Cross-sectional
Keywords: New Pact on Migration and Asylum, human smuggling, human trafficking, temporary protection
12 September 2023
Today, the European Migration Network (EMN) Belgium was invited to present the results of an upcoming publication to members of the Flemish Agency for Internal Affairs as well as to take part in a coordination meeting between the four integration contact points in Belgium (for Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels, and the German-speaking community).
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Main Theme: Integration
Keywords: integration contact point, integration monitoring
12 September 2023
The first residents have arrived today in the reception center in Alveringem (West Flanders). These are Syrian families who were resettled from Lebanon.
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Main Theme: Reception
Keywords: reception centre, resettlement, resettled refugee
06 September 2023
In its judgment in Case T-600/21 | WS and Others v Frontex, the General Court dismissed today the action of a number of Syrian refugees who had brought a claim for compensation before the General Court of the European Union. The applicants claimed that Frontex engaged in improper conduct with regard to them.
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Main Theme: Return & Readmission
Keywords: Frontex, return operation, fundamental right
05 September 2023
The European Union Agency for Asylum just released the latest asylum trends for the period January - June 2023. During the first half of 2023, applications for asylum rose to 519.000, a 28 % increase compared to the first half of 2022. As a result of the increase, many EU+ countries are under pressure with processing applications and protecting those in need.
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Main Theme: Data & Statistics
Keywords: asylum applications, asylum decisions, asylum figures
05 September 2023
The European Migration Network (EMN) Belgium was at the European Parliament today for a presentation on “The Power of Labour Mobility Pilot Projects to Support the EU Legal Migration Reform”, organised by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
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Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour mobility, pilot project, Migration Partnership Facility
01 September 2023
Flanders has published a new list of medium-skilled shortage occupations open to migration which enters into force today. The new list has been adapted to the current economic reality and labor market situation - it now contains 29 positions.
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Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: shortage occupation, labour market
30 August 2023
Walloon Minister-President Elio Di Rupo has written to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to call for the regularisation of undocumented immigrants capable of working in jobs in short supply, reports L’Echo.
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Main Theme: Economic migration
Keywords: labour shortage, shortage occupation, regularisation, single permit
29 August 2023
Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor has decided to temporarily stop receiving single males in the national network for the reception of asylum seekers. Through this decision, the Secretary of State intends to anticipate “the growing influx of families and children to absolutely avoid children ending up on the streets in winter.”
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Main Theme: Reception
Keywords: reception crisis, reception centre, single male asylum seeker
25 August 2023
The Federal Institute is tasked with regularly examining the situation of persons deprived of their liberty through preventive visits, making recommendations to the competent authorities and proposing legislation and verifying its compatibility with international standards.