Belgium’s Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) has revealed that the country received a total of 35,507 applications for international protection in 2023. This marked an increase from the previous year, with 25,356 decisions being made for 29,885 individuals. Of these, 43.5% were granted international protection status, including refugee and subsidiary protection status.
According to CGRS, the increase in decisions was made possible by hiring new protection officers, resulting in an average of 15% more available officers during the period. The majority of applications came from individuals with origins from Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Türkiye, and Eritrea, with only 32% of the applicants being women.
The highest number of recognized refugee statuses during that period were granted to Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans, and Burundians, while the highest number of subsidiary protection statuses were granted to Yemenis, Somalis, Syrians, and Iraqis. Additionally, 5,918 individuals submitted subsequent applications for international protection, with Afghanistan and Moldova having particularly high proportions of repeated applications.
In 2023, the Immigration Office also recorded 2,594 applicants for international protection claiming to be unaccompanied foreign minors, with 1,660 individuals being temporarily recognized as actual minors. The majority of the applicants for unaccompanied foreign minors were boys, with a significant number coming from Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria.
In terms of inadmissibility decisions, mostly involving subsequent applications and those from individuals with protection status in another EU member state, CGRS reported a decrease compared to 2022. However, the protection rate still amounted to 52.3%, suggesting that these cases should be treated as a priority. Overall, the total number of applications for international protection saw a 3.2% decrease in 2023 compared to the previous year, indicating a potential shift in migration patterns to Belgium.
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