In the first eight months of 2024, more than 3.000 Palestinians have applied for asylum in Belgium
On 1 October 2024, Nicole de Moor stated that proportionally speaking, more Palestinian applicants for international protection come to Belgium than to other European Member States. She also confirmed that the protection rate for Palestinian applicants had increased in recent years.
According to the latest monthly statistical report of the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS), 3.309 Palestinians submitted an application for international protection in Belgium between January and August 2024. In 2023, the Belgian authorities recorded 3.249 such requests over the entire year. During the first six months of this year, the protection rate for Palestinians was 89% in Belgium.
When questioned on this subject in the Interior Committee in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 1 October 2024, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration expressed concern about the large number of Palestinian applicants for international protection in Belgium. She also highlighted the increase in the number of Palestinian applicants who have already been granted asylum elsewhere - often in Greece.
Nicole de Moor said she was consulting her European colleagues on the matter, and underlined that the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which aimed at a better distribution, could prevent a specific nationality from weighing too heavily on the asylum system of a Member State in the future.
For further information, you can read the full report of the Interior Committee of 1 October 2024.