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19/09/2025 – 10/10/2025

/ Migrants and Refugees / By
  • The ECRE published an OpEd on 25 September 2025, stating that Belgium’s reception ban for M-status holders is ‘testing the limits of EU Law and Human Dignity. Since August 2025, Belgium has allowed for people holding M-status – meaning they already have refugee status in another EU country – to be refused accommodation by the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil). This has left many people, including families with children, without shelter and sleeping on the streets, as Fedasil has refused accommodation to 143 people under the new policy. According to ECRE, most M-status holders in Belgium are recognised as refugees in Greece and have sought protection in Belgium again due to the documented lack of access to rights in Greece. 
  • As reported by BELGA News Agency on 19 September 2025, two Belgian watchdog organisations, the Federal Institute for the Protection of Human Rights (FIRM) and the migration centre Myria, have accused the Belgian government of consciously eroding asylum seekers’ rights, stating “Belgian authorities are knowingly accepting an inhuman and degrading situation, unworthy of a state governed by the rule of law”. Belgium is currently facing a reception crisis, with more than 1,900 asylum seekers waiting for a reception place on 8 September 2025.  Instead of allocating more funding, the government announced plans to cut the budget of Fedasil, the Federal Agency of Asylum seekers, by 83 per cent by 2029.