About this report:

Foreign nationals are offered protection in Belgium along a variety of needs, through different procedures or administrative practices, granting varying statuses and rights. There are formal protection statuses which give a right to residence. They can be divided in EU harmonised and national statuses. Some of these statuses form part of the Belgian asylum policy and are granted by the competent asylum authority. Other statuses form part of the Belgian migration policy and are granted by the immigration authority.

The procedures that must be followed in order to obtain protection differ greatly from one to the other. The legislative basis is in some cases more solid than in other cases. Authorities are sometimes bound to decide on mandatory grounds, in other instances discretionary grounds give them a greater margin of appreciation.

The rights that accompany protection statuses range from full blown rights to fewer rights, according to the permanent or temporary character of the protection statuses granted. There are however also other forms of protection that do not give a right of residence and often find their origin in Belgian social policy or reception policy. The protection they off er is very basic and minimal.

A schematic overview of the protection statuses and practices according to each involved policy is often divided in asylum, migration and social & reception policy.

This publication is only available in English.

Author:

Marleen Maes (University of Leuven), Marie-Claire Foblets (University of Leuven), Dirk Vanheule (University of Antwerp).