Barely hours after the EU’s migration pact became operational, the upgraded Eurodac biometric database malfunctioned on 12 June, forcing several member states—including Belgium—to process asylum registrations by hand. Dutch immigration authorities first flagged the outage, and Belgian officials quickly confirmed that enrolment stations at the Federal Immigration Office in Brussels and at Antwerp’s decentralised hub were unable to upload fingerprints for much of Friday. Eurodac is central to the new rules because it checks whether an applicant has already filed a claim elsewhere in the bloc and triggers the ‘responsibility-sharing’ algorithm. Without real-time access, Belgian caseworkers had to store data locally and schedule manual uploads, adding at least 48 hours to initial screening times according to an internal DVZ memo leaked to local media. The glitch also rippled into business travel. Carriers operating late-evening arrivals at Brussels Airport reported queues of up to 90 minutes at non-EU desks as border police switched to fallback spreadsheets.
![Eurodac Glitch on Day-One of Migration Pact Causes Delays Across Belgium]()
If upcoming travel or onboarding timelines look shaky, VisaHQ can bridge the gap by arranging alternative documentation and rescheduling biometrics appointments. Its Belgium portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) lets mobility teams track requirements in real time and secure expedited courier services, ensuring executives and new hires keep moving even when official systems stall.
The Flemish employers’ organisation VOKA warned that executive transferees booked for next-week onboarding may be stuck in legal limbo until their biometric files are synchronised. EU IT services contractor eu-LISA said the issue was related to a compatibility patch deployed just before launch and promised a fix within 24 hours. While the Commission downplayed the severity, migration lawyers note that any recurrence could expose Belgium to lawsuits for breaching the pact’s strict seven-day decision deadline. Practical tip: mobility managers should monitor appointment portals throughout the weekend; rescheduling may be required for clients whose fingerprints failed to upload. For new hires arriving next week, carry hard copies of visa pages to speed up manual verification at border control.
If upcoming travel or onboarding timelines look shaky, VisaHQ can bridge the gap by arranging alternative documentation and rescheduling biometrics appointments. Its Belgium portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) lets mobility teams track requirements in real time and secure expedited courier services, ensuring executives and new hires keep moving even when official systems stall.
The Flemish employers’ organisation VOKA warned that executive transferees booked for next-week onboarding may be stuck in legal limbo until their biometric files are synchronised. EU IT services contractor eu-LISA said the issue was related to a compatibility patch deployed just before launch and promised a fix within 24 hours. While the Commission downplayed the severity, migration lawyers note that any recurrence could expose Belgium to lawsuits for breaching the pact’s strict seven-day decision deadline. Practical tip: mobility managers should monitor appointment portals throughout the weekend; rescheduling may be required for clients whose fingerprints failed to upload. For new hires arriving next week, carry hard copies of visa pages to speed up manual verification at border control.
