Today the Council of Ministers decided that the mandatory fee migrants have to pay when applying for certain residence permits will increase.

On 27 January, the Migration Policy Institute organizes a webinar on "European Union Third-Country Partnerships: Where Do We Go From Here?"

Today a new law enters (partly) into force inserting a general residence condition into the Immigration Act. The Immigration Office can now put an end to a residence permit if the person cannot put forward provable integration efforts.

The Passenger Name Record (PNR) law has been adopted in Parliament in December 2016. It was published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 25 January 2017. On the basis of this law, carriers will be obliged to send data on their passengers travelling from, to, or across Belgium to a central database.

Ahead of the meeting of Heads of State or Government in Malta on 3 February 2017, the Commission and the High Representative/Vice-President have set out their contribution to the discussion on how to better manage migration and save lives along the Central Mediterranean route.

Today, the Commission is taking stock of the progress achieved and the work still needed in making the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency fully operational.

De Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering organiseert een vorming over  het verblijfsrecht en tewerkstelling van mensen die in België voor ambassades, consultaten en internationale instellingen werken. Ook de problematiek van het huispersoneel komt aan bod.

Het Europees Platform over Staatloosheid, de VN Hoge Commissaris voor de Vluchtelingen en het Europees Migratienetwerk the European hebben een conferentie georganiseerd over "Addressing Statelessness in the European Union, One year on from the adoption of European Council Conclusions". 

According to the Missing Migrants Project, an estimate of 7495 men, women and children migrants or refugees died or were reported missing across five continents in 2016. That is almost 20 victims per day and the number may not include them all.

In 2016, there was a sharp drop in the number of asylum applications in Belgium, and the number of decisions taken by the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons reached an all-time high.

Enkele speciaal gemachtigde ambtenaren van de Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken kregen rechtstreekse toegang tot bepaalde delen van de Algemene Nationale Gegevensbank van de politie. 

From 1 January to 30 June 2017,  Malta will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU. The presidency will focus on 6 key areas: migration, single market, security, social inclusion, Europe's neighbourhood and maritime sector.