Each year, the Odysseus Network organizes a Summer School in EU immigration and asylum law and policy. The courses tackle the most recent legislative, jurisprudential and political developments in the field at EU level.

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, which is organized every year on 20th June by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Eurostat published an infographic on annual asylum data for 2018 . Eurostat also published its Asylum quarterly report. In the first quarter of 2019, the number of first-time asylum applicants slightly increased : 4% more compared to the 4th quarter of 2018.

On 24 June 2019 (9:00 - 10:45), EASO will launch its Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the EU in Brussels. 

Today the English translation of the latest report on Human Trafficking and Smuggling from Myria was published. The 2018 report focuses on underage victims of trafficking and smuggling of human beings.

On May 27, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Commission and European Migration Network organise the International Conference “A New European Agenda on Migration?”. During this event, experts will share their views on the achievements, challenges and perspectives of integration and migration policies in Europe.

The Federal Public Service Interior has made a short video about foreign unaccompanied minors seeking international protection in Belgium.

Myria, the Belgian Federal Migration Centre, is recruiting a policy officer to work for the Belgian Contact Point of the European Migration Network (EMN).

Voluntary returns to the countries of origin are decreasing. Among others, this is the result of the lower number of asylum applications during the past years.

Op 18 januari organiseert Myria, samen met samen met de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, de Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique en Le Soir, een grote conferentie over migratie. Die vindt plaats in het Paleis der Academiën in Brussel. Een dag lang worden thema’s als internationale bescherming en economische migratie aangesneden aan de hand van academische uiteenzettingen.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.