Belgium’s Immigration Office (DVZ) has confirmed that only 2,071 people applied for asylum in September 2026, almost one-third fewer than in the same month last year and the lowest September figure since the pandemic. The decline means Belgium has now recorded nine straight months of falling applications, a sharper contraction (-29.9%) than the 18% EU-wide drop over the same period. Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt attributes the trend to the federal government’s “strict but fair” migration package introduced in February, which tightened registration deadlines, expanded accelerated procedures for low-recognition nationalities and raised penalties for document fraud. NGOs, however, point out that geopolitical factors – notably a lull in the Syrian conflict and EU-level deals with transit countries such as Tunisia and Egypt – are also depressing arrivals. Lower inflows have eased pressure on the Immigration Office, where the case backlog has fallen 77% year-on-year, yet the Commissioner-General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) faces the opposite problem: a record 27,794 files still await a first-instance decision. The CGRS must now prioritise low-recognition nationalities under the EU Migration Pact, pushing its refusal rate to seven in ten and lengthening waits for other applicants. Business-minded employers see short-term upside. Reception centres are gradually freeing beds, enabling the government to convert emergency accommodation back into labour-market housing. But lawyers warn that chronic staffing gaps at the CGRS could undermine legal certainty and discourage skilled migrants who need predictable processing times for family-reunification and status-related travel. Van Bossuyt has promised a “double strategy”: shrinking the Fedasil reception network by 4,000 beds in 2027 while redirecting savings to hire 180 additional CGRS decision-makers and digitalise paper files. If Parliament approves the 2027 federal budget in December, companies may benefit from swifter residence decisions—but only if the downscaling of shelters does not outpace real-world demand should global conflicts flare up again.
Source: The Brussels Times
