Author
There are no published reports by NGOs about cases of actual refoulement at the border of persons wanting to apply for asylum.
In French, returning someone at the border without allowing them to access the territory, but after having examined their asylum application on its well-foundedness, is wrongly referred to with the legal term ‘refoulement’. This may add to the confusion between a genuine refoulement (or ‘push back’) and the execution of a return decision.
Border monitoring
In Belgium, no border monitoring system corresponding to the definition set by UNHCR is in place. However, several organisations have formed a coalition active in the field of administrative detention of migrants. Since January 2021, this coalition has been officially in place and known as Move.[1] Move Coalition is accredited to visit detention centres. The visitors of Move visit all detention centres in Belgium on a weekly basis (see Conditions of detention). In 2024, a Preventive Mechanism against torture has been set up within the Federal Institute for the protection and promotion of Human Rights, in the context of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Together with the Central Prison Monitoring Council (CTRG-CCSP), the Federal Migration Centre (Myria) and the Standing Police Monitoring Committee (Committee P), the mission of the Preventive Mechanism is to monitor places of deprivation of liberty, including administrative detention centres for migrants at the border (see Access to detention facilities).
Legal access to the territory
Humanitarian visa
Third country nationals can apply for a humanitarian visa. No exact criteria, definitions or requirements specified in law indicate who can obtain a humanitarian visa.[2] The Immigration Office has a broad margin of discretion and assesses each application on an individual basis. A humanitarian visa is not a right, but a favour granted by the government. Apart from humanitarian visas granted in the context of resettlement operations (see infra: Resettlement), the Immigration Office distinguishes two types of situations in which humanitarian visa are granted:[3]
- ‘Enlarged family reunification’: a humanitarian visa can be granted to third country nationals who fall just outside of the scope of the right to family reunification. Examples of this category could be (non-exhaustive list):
- siblings of an unaccompanied minor who has received international protection in Belgium and who accompany their parents who are reunited with the unaccompanied minor through family reunification;
- people who have lost their right to family reunification because the age requirement is not fulfilled anymore or because the deadline for application of the visa has expired.
- Humanitarian and/or urgent situations: a humanitarian visa can be granted to third country nationals who do not feel safe in their country of origin, or for urgent economical or medical reasons. However, one cannot obtain a humanitarian visa with the explicit intention to apply for international protection upon arrival in Belgium.
In 2024, the Immigration Office received a total of 4,352 applications for a humanitarian visa: 1,394 humanitarian visas were granted and 1,557 requests were refused. In 2025, the Immigration Office received a total of 2,800 applications for a humanitarian visa (excluding requests in the context of resettlement). 1,476 humanitarian visas were granted and 1,972 requests were refused.[4]
A humanitarian visa needs to be requested by the third country national at the competent Belgian embassy in the country of origin and/or in the country of residence.[5] Remote applications, such as those exceptionally allowed for applications for family reunification, are in principle only allowed in so-called ‘hybrid cases’, where applications for family reunification are combined with applications for humanitarian visa (e.g. for the adult children of the same family). However, in the context of the war in Gaza, and the absolute impossibility of in-person applications in that context, several courts have obliged the Belgian government to accept remote applications for humanitarian visas of applicants in Gaza with family ties in Belgium, based on article 8 ECHR.[6] Nevertheless, this procedure is not used very often because even with a humanitarian visa, people do not manage to be evacuated from Gaza since the Belgian government closed the evacuation list at the end of April 2025 (see Family reunification).[7]
The applicant needs to pay an administrative fee of €242 per adult person.[8] The law does not determine a deadline by which the Immigration Office needs to take a decision. If the humanitarian visa is granted, applicants receive a long-term visa. Upon arrival in Belgium, they are given a temporary residence permit valid for 1 year. This residence permit can be extended annually. The extension can be subject to certain criteria such as proof of cohabitation with the family member in Belgium and proof of work. Third country nationals who arrived in Belgium with a humanitarian visa have the possibility to apply for international protection.
Although the Immigration Office has a broad margin of discretion, its decision-making cannot be arbitrary, and a thorough examination of each request is required. In a judgment of 24 January 2024, the CALL annulled a decision of the Immigration Office refusing a humanitarian visa to the adult sister of an Afghan unaccompanied minor with international protection in Belgium. According to the CALL, the Immigration Office did not sufficiently consider the country-of-origin information regarding the situation of unmarried single Afghan women and their strongly deteriorated situation after the takeover of power by the Taliban. The CALL considered this information important to assess whether there is a situation of dependency in the sense of Article 8 ECHR between the sister and her family staying in Belgium. Thus, the CALL found that, by not considering this information, the Immigration Office violated the duty of care and Article 8 ECHR.[9]
From 2013 until 2024, Belgium had a structural resettlement programme based on annual quotas.[10] Fedasil manages the Belgian resettlement programme with several partners. UNHCR identifies vulnerable refugees in third countries. Afterwards, CGRS officials engage in conversations with the selected persons – online or live after travelling to their country of asylum – in order to proceed to a refugee status determination, verify whether the person falls withing one of the UNHCR resettlement submission categories[11] and carry out the required security checks. If a person is eligible to be resettled to Belgium, Fedasil carries out pre-departure medical and social screenings and the third country national receives a humanitarian visa and a pre-departure cultural orientation by Fedasil, ‘BELCO’.[12] IOM is involved for the reservation of flights, some last medical checks and the accompaniment of the person from departure until arrival in Belgium.[13] Upon arrival in Belgium, the person can lodge an application for international protection.
Over the period 2013-2024, Belgium resettled 5,275 refugees. Belgium initially pledged to resettle 1,250 persons in 2022, 1,400 in 2023 and 1,500 in 2024. The pledges for 2023 and 2024 were afterwards lowered to 500 in both years, due to the reception crisis. For 2025, Belgium pledged to resettle 1,000 persons. However, due to the ongoing reception crisis (see Constraints to shelter) the resettlement programme is severely impacted. During 2022, only 71 out of 1,250 resettlements (6%) were effectively carried out.[14] In 2024, 487 persons were resettled to Belgium, mainly Congolese refugees from Rwanda and Syrian refugees from Türkiye.[15] In 2025, the Minister for Asylum and Migration announced that she would suspend the resettlement programme.[16] The Minister declared that she would only resume the programme as soon as there is a decrease of migrants arriving in Belgium irregularly. Consequently, in 2025, Belgium only resettled 44 persons who were identified beforehand but did not identify any new refugees for resettlement.
| Number of third country nationals resettled to Belgium[17] | ||||||||||
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| 276 | 452 | 1,309 | 880 | 239 | 176 | 964 | 71 | 287 | 487 | 44 |
In 2023, Fedasil opened a reception centre dedicated to the reception and support of resettled refugees.[18] It also launched a Community Sponsorship programme in 2020 as an alternative reception model to secure the effective implementation of resettlement programmes in the future.[19] Through Community Sponsorship, groups of volunteers are supported by Caritas International to receive a resettled person or family and support them for a 12-month period. Between 2020 and 2024, 65 resettled persons and 82 volunteers were thus supported.[20] As long as the resettlement procedure is put on hold, the dedicated reception centre is used for general reception of asylum seekers.
Up until 2021, Belgium had an annual relocation policy in place. The highest number of relocated asylum applicants were registered in 2017 (895) but significantly decreased in the following years, reaching only 18 in 2020 and 43 in 2021. In 2023, 32 persons were relocated from Cyprus and a pledge was made to relocate another 100 individuals residing in the Mediterranean area, including 70 individuals from Cyprus.[21] These relocations from Cyprus took place in the context of a voluntary pledge linked to the negotiations on the EU Migration Pact.[22] In 2024, another 18 persons were relocated by March 2024; 15 persons were still waiting for relocation later that year, but no further information is available on this. In 2025, in the context of the implementation of the EU Pact, the Belgian Minister for Asylum and Migration has announced that Belgium would not opt for relocations but rather for a financial contribution to the Solidarity Pool.[23]
[1] http://www.movecoalition.be
[2] Articles 9 & 13 in the Aliens Act provide the only legal basis for humanitarian visa.
[3] Immigration Office, Activity report 2022, available in French: https://bit.ly/3TCCTMU, 18-19.
[4] The numbers on the applications and the decisions granting/refusing a visa do not correspond, because a decision is not necessarily taken in the year of the application.
[5] Article 9, Aliens Act.
[6] Brussels Court of First Instance, Decision 2023/323/C of 2 February 2024, available in French here; Brussels Court of First Instance, Decision 2024/24/C of 15 March 2024; Brussels Court of First Instance, Decision 2024/26/C of 15 March 2024.
[7] Myria, Press release – Myria is calling on the Belgian government to make a decision as soon as possible regarding who is eligible for evacuation from Gaza, 18 December 2025, available in French here.
[8] Article 1/1 Aliens Act; Website Immigration Office, Contribution fee (consulted on 3/03/2026), available here.
[9] CALL, Decision N° 292036, 17 July 2023.
[10] www.resettlement.be; CGRS, Resettlement, available in English here.
[11] UNHCR resettlement submission categories, available here.
[12] Fedasil, BELCO – Belgian cultural orientation, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3xdmC9y.
[13] Fedasil, ’10 years of resettlement in Belgium’, 5 October 2023, available in French at: https://bit.ly/43D2mKs.
[14] Fedasil, ‘Resettlement 71 refugees in 2022’, 5 January 2023, available in Dutch via http://bit.ly/3ZPGBop. Statistics available via https://bit.ly/3Js9jpq; Standaard, ‘For refugees who want to come to Europe via legal pathways, there is no place in Belgium’, 24 January 2023, available in Dutch at: http://bit.ly/3ZALJfS.
[15] Fedasil, ‘487 resettled refugees in 2024, 11 February 2025, available in English here.
[16] The Brussels Time, Belgium discontinues resettlement programme, only legal route into country, 26 March 2025, available in English here.
[17] CGRA, Arrivals of resettled persons (2013-2025), available in French here.
[18] Fedasil, ‘Resettlement of 287 refugees in 2023’, 2 February 2024, available in English at https://tinyurl.com/ysm34ek9.
[19] Fedasil, Community Sponsorship, available in English here.
[20] Information received from Caritas International Belgium, March 2025. For an evaluation of the Community Sponsorship program, see: SHARE Quality Sponsorship Network (QSN) Publication, Evaluation of Community Sponsorship Programme in Belgium, April 2023, available in English here.
[21] EMN, Annual report on Migration and Asylum in Belgium 2023, available in English here, p. 31.
[22] Information provided by cabinet of the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, 25 March 2024.
[23] Anneleen Van Bossuyt, Europe sharpens migration- and asylum policy, 8 December 2025, available in Dutch here; EMN Belgium, Belgium commits financial contribution to EU Annual Solidarity Pool for 2026, 18 December 2025, available in English here.