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Twenty-five organisations have submitted a petition to the Belgian Constitutional Court challenging the new family reunification law, which entered into force in August 2025. The petition highlights concerns that the law creates barriers that may prevent families from reuniting, potentially separating children from their parents indefinitely.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: family reunification law, access to family reunification, petition, Constitutional Court
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Fragomen will host a webinar on recent changes to Belgium’s immigration policies. The session will cover two main areas: first, new rules in the Flanders Region concerning economic migration, including labour migration pathways, contractual liability, and labour market testing; and second, nationwide modifications affecting family reunification, such as stricter financial criteria for visa applications. The webinar will also highlight practical implications for businesses employing foreign nationals.
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Myria, the Federal Migration Centre, has published a new thematic report on the right to family life as part of its annual report "Migration in Figures and Rights 2025". The report provides updated data on first residence permits and visas for family reasons. It also examines recent legislative reforms, which Myria stresses will need close monitoring due to their potential impact on access to family reunification, integration outcomes, and the risk of poverty.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: family life, first residence permit, family reunification visa
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The Federal Ombudsman has highlighted persistent challenges for individuals required to submit visa applications in person at Belgian diplomatic or consular posts. These requirements can create significant financial, administrative, and security burdens, particularly for applicants living far from a competent post or in conflict-affected regions. The Ombudsman recommends reviewing visa submission procedures to improve accessibility and consistency.
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Main theme: Family reunification, Borders & Visa
Keywords: visa application, diplomatic post, consular post, submission, Afrin
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On Monday, Belgium repatriated 75 people from the Gaza Strip. They arrived at Ostend airport in the afternoon. Belgian authorities report that around 850 eligible individuals have already been evacuated from Gaza. About 150 people remain on the list awaiting evacuation.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: Gaza, evacuation, family member, Belgian, refugee, stateless persons
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The event will bring together experts from Germany and across Europe to discuss recent developments in family reunification. Debates will address the tension between safeguarding fundamental rights and meeting the requirements of migration management. Participants will explore how these priorities can be reconciled in practice through national and European approaches.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: family reunification, fundamental right, migration management
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Red Cross Flanders has opened 156 new cases this year concerning families who lost contact due to war, violence or migration, involving 337 individuals. The organisation works to reconnect families separated under these circumstances. Currently, 671 cases remain open in Flanders, while the international Red Cross network manages over 250.000 cases worldwide. Efforts cover more than twenty countries, including Ukraine, Afghanistan and Congo.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: missing person, family tie, family member, family tracing
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From 18 August 2025, new rules for family reunification enter into force in Belgium. They do not apply to all applicants. Some cases continue under the old rules, others transition to the new rules in 2027, while certain applications are immediately subject to the new framework. This article explains who is affected and how the rules will change.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: application for family reunification, family tie, income requirement, minimum age, housing
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The Belgian Chamber of Representatives has adopted new legislation modifying the conditions for family reunification under the law of 15 December 1980. The changes introduce stricter income requirements and modify waiting periods for certain categories of foreign nationals, particularly those benefiting from international or subsidiary protection. The legislation was approved with a majority vote during a plenary session and aims to regulate access to family reunification, a principal legal pathway for foreign nationals to join family members in Belgium.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: application for family reunification, income requirement, waiting period, age limit
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Myria, the Federal Migration Centre, warns that the measures announced by the federal government in its "Easter Agreement" violate the right to family life. The institution announced in a press release published on Tuesday that it had shared its observations with the government and expressed hope for a constructive dialogue.
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EMN Belgium participates in a roundtable in the Senate on the abolition of female genital mutilation
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On 5 February 2025, the Belgian Contact Point to the European Migration Network (EMN) took part in a roundtable in the Senate, focusing on the abandonment of sexual mutilation. The Group for the Abolition of Sexual Mutilation (GAMS) inter alia stressed that it has limited visibility on individuals arriving in Belgium through family reunification, making it more difficult to raise awareness and monitor cases of female genital mutilation in the country.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: sexual mutilation, female genital mutilation
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According to figures released by the Immigration Office, 20.724 decisions resulted in the granting of visas for family reunification in Belgium in 2024, compared to 18.738 in 2023 and 15.901 the year before. The increase concerns several categories, in particular family reunification with a refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: family reunification visa, upward trend
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Myria has published the third thematic section of its 2024 annual report. In this section entitled "Right to family life", Myria calls for more accurate, regular and transparent information regarding the family reunification procedure at its various stages, both at the level of diplomatic posts and external service providers, ensuring the accessibility – including linguistic – of this information for the target audience.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: long-stay visa, first residence permit, application for family reunification
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The law of 10 March 2024 amending the law of 15 December 1980 on the right to family reunification comes into force on 1 September 2024. The changes have an impact among other things on the right to family reunification for parents of accompanied minors with international protection, the right to family reunification for stateless persons, the assessment of minorhood in the asylum procedure or residence procedure for stateless person, etc.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: right to family reunification, application for family reunification
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On 24 April 2024, EMN Netherlands, in cooperation with EMN Belgium, organised a conference on family reunification with beneficiaries of international protection. The conference highlighted the EMN Inform on “Family Reunification for Beneficiaries of International Protection”, which was elaborated in light of the 20th anniversary of the Family Reunification Directive.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: Family Reunification Directive, beneficiary of international protection, family tie, documentary proof, children
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This conference organised by EMN Netherlands, in cooperation with EMN Belgium, will focus on family reunification of beneficiaries of international protection in EMN Member and Observer Countries. The influence of European case law in this field will also be examined in more detail.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: family reunification right, beneficiary of international protection
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In a judgement released today, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that an unaccompanied minor refugee, who reached majority during the procedure relating to the application for family reunification with his or her parents, has a right to such reunification.
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Researcher and author Pascal Debruyne will present his book which contains stories of parents and minors who struggle through the family reunification procedure and stories of care providers who try their best to support these families. Panel discussions will also take place with experts in this field.
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Main theme: Family reunification
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During the first six months of 2023, the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders already helped 152 people – mostly refugees – in their search for lost relatives. That is the highest number since 2017. The organisation is looking for volunteers who want to commit at least 6 hours a week to help find the missing relatives.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: refugee, missing relative
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According to the Court of Justice of the EU, European Union law precludes national legislation which requires, without exception, that an application for family reunification be submitted in person at a competent diplomatic post.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: application for family reunification, Family Reunification Directive, refugee
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Ahead of the Family Reunification Directive’s 20th anniversary, this new comparative report provides a comprehensive overview of the current implementation of the Directive and other forms of realisation of family unity for individuals in need of protection across 23 European countries based on ECRE’s Asylum Information Database (AIDA).
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: Family Reunification Directive, family reunification right
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The Court of Justice of the European Union interpreted Article 2(f) and Article 10(3)(a) of the Family Reunification Directive in its decision from 17 November 2022 in the case X v Belgium. An unaccompanied refugee minor residing in a Member State does not have to be unmarried to enjoy the right to family reunification with first-degree relatives in direct ascending line.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: Family Reunification Directive, unaccompanied minors, family reunification right
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In 2018, the European Migration Network (EMN) celebrates its 10 year anniversary. On this occasion, the EMN organized a conference on 15 May in Brussels.
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Main theme: Asylum, Migration
Keywords: anniversary, EMN conference
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In a judgment handed down today, the EU Court of Justice responded to a Dutch prejudicial question on family reunification of (unaccompanied minor) refugees. Following the reasoning of the Court, an unaccompanied minor who attains the age of majority during the asylum procedure retains its right to family reunification.
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Main theme: Family reunification
Keywords: unaccompanied minors, family reunification right, international protection
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This conference aims to provide legal practitioners with an update on recent developments in the EU legal migration system and the mechanisms put in place to tackle labour and skills shortages and to reinforce the attractiveness of the EU for key workers