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Asylum applicants who stay in an open (collective or individual) reception centre enjoy freedom of movement across the national territory without restrictions. If the asylum application is refused, the rejected asylum applicant is transferred to a so called ‘open return place’ in a regular centre, where they can enjoy full reception rights until the end of the right to reception and where they also enjoy freedom of movement across the Belgian territory.
On the other hand, an applicant cannot choose their place of reception. As explained in Criteria and Restrictions to Access Reception Conditions, the reception structure is assigned by Fedasil’s Dispatching service under a formal decision called ‘assignment of a Code 207’. Asylum applicants can only enjoy the material and other provisions they are entitled to in the reception place they are assigned to. If the asylum applicant refuses the place assigned or is absent from the assigned place for 3 consecutive days without prior notice, or is absent for more than 10 nights in one month (with or without prior notice), Fedasil can decide to refuse them material conditions or exclude them from the centre that was assigned to them. In certain situations, applicants have to move from one reception centre to another. This can happen, for instance, when an unaccompanied minor turns 18 years old. Youth protection organisations have criticised the negative impact of such decisions on the wellbeing of the minor, who might have built a support network in a certain place and need to rebuild everything from scratch when they are moved to a centre on the other side of the country when they turn 18 years old. Sometimes the new centre is even located in the other language part of Belgium, due to which they have to continue their schooling in a new language.