Author
Overall conditions
The minimum material reception rights for asylum applicants are described in the Reception Act, mainly in a very general way.[1] Fedasil organises them into 4 categories of aid:[2]
- ‘Bed, bath, bread’: the basic needs, that is a place to sleep, meals, sanitary facilities and clothing;
- Guidance, including social, legal, linguistic, medical and psychological assistance;
- Daily life, including leisure, activities, education, training, work and community services; and
- Neighbourhood associations.
Many aspects such as the social guidance during transition to financial aid after a person has obtained a legal stay, or the legal guidance during the asylum procedure and the quality norms for reception facilities have, as of 1 January 2025, not yet been regulated by implementing decrees as the law has stipulated. Until then, they are left to be determined by the individual reception facilities themselves or in a more coordinated way by Fedasil instructions. Due to this, as of January 2025, the quality norms for reception facilities are still not available a public document, although they exist and were updated and agreed upon by all the partners of Fedasil in 2018. They contain minimum social and legal guidance standards, material assistance, infrastructure, contents and safety.
In 2015 Fedasil developed a framework to conduct quality audits based on these uniform standards. Setting minimum standards and an audit mechanism was difficult as different partners, such as the Red Cross, have developed their own norms and standards over the years. Moreover, some partners criticised the possibility to have audits being performed by Fedasil instead of an independent authority.[3] As of 1 January 2025, these audits are performed by Fedasil and there is still no independent and external monitoring system put in place. The past years, audits were conducted at all levels of the reception system (both by Fedasil and partners, and both in collective and individual shelters): 40 in 2019, 30 in 2020, 44 in 2021, 43 in 2022, 32 in 2023 and 39 in 2024. For 2025, 45 audits are planned, 16 of which in reception centres. The findings are not public and only communicated to the reception facility concerned.[4]
A Royal Decree regulates the system and operating rules in reception centres as well as on the modalities for checking the rooms.[5] This contains several general rights for the asylum applicant, such as:
- The right to a private and family life: family members should be accommodated close to each other;
- The right to be treated in an equal, non-discriminatory and respectful manner;
- Three meals per day provided either directly by the infrastructure or through other means;
- The right to be visited by lawyers and representatives of UNHCR. These visits should take place in a separate room allowing for private conversations.
In 2022 Fedasil conducted a study on its residents’ wellbeing, comparing collective[6] and individual[7] reception facilities. The residents of the former type of reception express an overall negative perception of their wellbeing. Almost all residents indicate that their basic physical and mental needs are not satisfied. They experience a lack of privacy, feel isolated and a lack of control over their day-to-day life. The overall conclusion is that collective reception facilities provide ‘a difficult environment’. The residents of the individual reception facilities express an overall positive perception of their wellbeing. The residents obtain more freedom and autonomy in these facilities, which has a positive impact on their wellbeing. The study highlighted a risk of isolation in individual facilities. Residents who moved from collective to individual reception facilities experienced a positive change in their wellbeing. Despite an increased wellbeing in individual reception facilities, most reception places are in the form of collective reception facilities. At the end of 2024, only 13% of the reception places are individual reception facilities and the new federal government has announced it wants to further decrease the number of individual reception places, favouring sober reception conditions in collective centres (see Collective or individual?).
Due to the current reception crisis, the reception network has been at full capacity since September 2021. No public documents are available about the impact of the reception crisis on the living conditions in the reception network. Regarding the new type of accommodation in ‘NOC’s’ (emergency shelter in hotels) for families, that was set up in 2024 to prevent a shortage of accommodation for families and vulnerable persons, the NGO Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen has received several complaints by residents concerning the living conditions in these shelters. Complaints include, among other things, cramped spaces (families stay with many persons in one room), very limited social support (a social assistant passes by once a week) and hygiene (bedbugs in several of the NOC’s). Some of these issues have been confirmed by the Director-General of Fedasil, who indicates that the quality of reception offered in the hotels is below standards.[8] Fedasil is working on an evaluation of the reception offered in the NOC’s, but it is not finished at the time of writing (March 2025).[9]
Shortage of places
Since September 2021 Fedasil can no longer provide a reception place for all applicants for international protection. Despite efforts to create new places, there are not enough places available in the reception network. Fedasil therefore needs to prioritise ‘vulnerable’ groups. Single men are considered to be the ‘least vulnerable’ group, due to which they are systematically denied access to the reception network.
The reception crisis persisted throughout 2024, with a total of 10,191 persons with a reception need not being able to get a reception place; an increase of 1,375 compared to 2023. In the beginning of 2025, 2,947 were registered on the waiting list of Fedasil, waiting to get access to a reception place. The average waiting time is 4 months[10] (see extensive information on the reception crisis under Constraints in accessing accommodation).
Average duration of stay
In 2024, the average length of stay of applicants for international protection in the reception system was 495 days (+- 16,5 months).[11] Applicants stayed an average of 49 days in a ‘first phase’ centre before moving on to a ‘second phase’ reception place. In 2024, certain families needed to be housed in emergency accommodation due to a lack of available places in the normal first phase reception centres. The average stay of families in these emergency centres was 55 days in the NOC’s and 67 days in the youth centres, Bredene and Theux (see Types of accommodation).
Most applicants stay a considerable part of this period, or all of it, in collective reception centres. The law provides for accommodation to be adapted to the individual situation of the asylum applicant,[12] but in practice places are primarily assigned according to availability and preferences under the reception model introduced in 2015 (see Forms and Levels of Material Reception Conditions).
[1] Articles 14-35 Reception Act.
[2] Fedasil, Stay in a Reception Centre, available at: https://tinyurl.com/rd29k52s.
[3] Court of Auditors, Opvang van asielzoekers, October 2017, 47-48.
[4] Information provided by Fedasil, March 2025.
[5] Royal Decree on the system and operating rules in reception centres and the modalities for checking rooms, 2 September 2018.
[6] Fedasil, ‘Welbeing and daily life in collective reception’, December 2022, available in Dutch via https://tinyurl.com/45w6tyst.
[7] Fedasil, ‘Welbeing and daily life in individual reception’, December 2022, available in Dutch via https://tinyurl.com/3svb3a9t.
[8] De Tijd, ‘Fedasil-director Pieter Spinnenwijn: “We cannot make the same mistake of massively closing asylum centres”, 26 February 2025, available in Dutch here.
[9] Information provided by Fedasil, March 2025.
[10] Consortium of NGO’s, ‘Non-reception policy – Dashboard January-December 2024’, available in Dutch here and in French here.
[11] Information provided by Fedasil, March 2025.
[12] Articles 11, 22, 28 and 36 Reception Act.