|Published on: 18th June 2025|Categories: News|
The updated AIDA Country Report on Belgium provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2024. It is accompanied by an annex which provides an overview of temporary protection.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the update on 2023 are set out below.
Statistics
- Asylum applications and decisions: 39,615 people applied for international protection in Belgium in 2024 (an increase of 11.6% compared to 2023). Of this total, 6,469 were subsequent applications and 2,345 applications were presented by applicants who declared themselves to be unaccompanied minors. The protection rate at first instance was 47.2% (62% if only in-merit decisions were considered). The main recipients of refugee status were Palestinians (3,281), Syrians (2,774), Eritreans (2,155), Afghans (1,944) and Burundians (1,326), while the main recipients of subsidiary protection status were Syrians (169) and Eritreans (30). There were 39,507 first instance applications pending in December 2024 (up from 34,754 in December 2023) and 8,232 cases pending before the Council of Alien Law Litigation (CALL) (up from 4,700 in December 2023).
- Dublin procedure: Of the 12,501 take charge and take back requests that the Belgian authorities sent to other EU member states in 2024, 9,318 were accepted and 954 people were transferred from Belgium. At the same time, of the 3,939 incoming take charge and take back requests that they received, the Belgian authorities accepted 2,514 and 566 people were transferred to Belgium.
Political context
- Coalition agreement: A new federal government was formed in January 2025. The five-party coalition’s agreement included proposals for a reform of the asylum system, with a stated intention to move towards Belgium’s “strictest migration policy yet”.
Asylum procedure
- Suspension of resettlement programme: In March 2025, the new Minister of Asylum and Migration announced the government’s intention to suspend the resettlement programme.
- Limited capacity for registration of asylum applications: Due to a low registration capacity, in 2024, the Immigration Office regularly issued ‘certificates of presentation’ with an invitation to return two to three weeks later even though the certificates did not serve as proof that a person had applied for asylum and despite the fact that the practice violated the legally prescribed registration deadline.
- More child-friendly court proceedings: In 2024, the CALL launched a pilot project with a courtroom specifically designed for unaccompanied minors. In addition, as of December 2024, unaccompanied minors receive a specially adapted convocation letter for CALL court hearings.
- Fast-track procedure for certain nationalities: As of February 2024, asylum applicants from safe countries of origin (i.e. Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, India, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and certain applicants from countries with a low recognition rate (Georgia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024) are subject to a ‘fast track procedure’ with priority treatment.
- Updated list safe countries of origin: Moldova was added to the list of safe countries of origin in 2024.
- Suspension and resumption of processing of files of specific nationalities: In late 2023, the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) resumed the processing of files of asylum applicants from Russia and Sudan, and both Gaza and the West Bank (albeit with long processing times for the latter). The CGRS also temporarily suspended certain decisions regarding files for applicants from Lebanon and Syria.
- Sufficient guardians for unaccompanied minors: In November 2024, for the first time in three years, there was no waiting list for the appointment of a guardian for unaccompanied minors. The Guardianship Service is now able to assign a guardian within the legal timeframe of eight weeks.
Reception conditions
- Continued reception crisis: Since October 2021, the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) has not been able to provide a reception place to all applicants for international protection. Priority has been given to those applicants considered vulnerable (e.g. families, children, single women, ). In 2024, 10,191 single male applicants were denied their right to reception and there was an average waiting time of 112 days. Fedasil has opened different types of emergency places to ensure reception for families.
- Exclusion from reception of beneficiaries of international protection in other EU member states: In November 2024, the Minister for Migration and Asylum issued an instruction that applications by people who had been granted asylum in another EU member state should be considered as ‘subsequent applications’, even if those people had not yet submitted an application in Belgium. This change would enable their reception conditions to be limited.
- End of the right to reception after a final negative decision: Following a legal reform in March 2024, a person’s right to reception now ends 30 days after they receive the final negative decision on their asylum application. Previously, it continued until the time period to leave the territory indicated in the return decision had expired).
- Case law on the reception crisis: Several Belgian courts have ruled against practices by the Belgian authorities. This has resulted, inter alia, in the seizure of Fedasil bank accounts in order to extract payment of fines relating to numerous condemnations in the context of the reception crisis, and a suspension of the Minister for Asylum and Migration’s order that limited the right to reception conditions for male applicants with a protection status in another EU member state.
Detention of asylum applicants
- Prohibition of detention of children legally enshrined: The prohibition on detaining families with children in detention centres was enshrined in law in July 2024. Since that time, families with minor children can only be held in “return houses” rather than detention centres.
- ‘Individual case management’ as alternative to detention: A new law that introduced a “proactive return policy” was adopted in May 2024 and entered into effect shortly afterwards (see below). It provided for, inter alia, a system of “individual case management” for people who have received a return decision as an alternative to detention.
Content of international protection
- Language requirements as condition for social housing: From the start of 2024, new conditions for social renting have been applied in Flanders. These include Dutch language proficiency (A2 to be raised to B1 by 2027) and a requirement for unemployed applicants to register with the employment service.
Returns
- New law on a ‘proactive return policy’: The law that introduced the proactive return policy entered into force in July 2024. Among its measures were a duty to co-operate in the organisation of transfer, expulsion, return or removal, an extensive list of situations in which a person is presumed to be ‘absconding’, and a prohibition on the detention of families with minor children in closed centres. Annulment of this law has been sought before the Constitutional Court.
Temporary protection
- Statistics: 13,277 temporary protection certificates were issued in Belgium in 2024. At the same time, 883 refusal decisions were made.
- Limited registration capacity: A shortage of personnel at the Immigration Office has resulted in limited registration capacity. As a result, some people have been unable to register their request for several weeks during which time they have not been provided with reception solutions from Fedasil.
- Asylum applications by Ukrainians remain frozen: Since the Council Implementation Decision in June 2024, no asylum requests by Ukrainian nationals have been processed.
- Stricter conditions for family reunification with temporary protection beneficiaries: A law which was adopted in March 2024 modified certain rules relating to family reunification and resulted in stricter conditions for obtaining a “derived status”.
The full report is available here and the annex on temporary protection is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.
