The Belgium Country Factsheet 2023, which is based on the Annual report on migration and asylum in Belgium 2023, briefly highlights the key developments for the year 2023 in the following areas:

• Overarching and crosscutting changes, including the drafting of a new migration code.
   
• Legal migration, including mobility projects between Belgium and the Ivory Coast, Georgia and Suriname.
   
• International protection, including measures to tackle the backlog of cases and increase the outflow from the reception network.
   
• Temporary protection, including efforts to better integrate beneficiaries of temporary protection into the Belgian labour market.
   
• Vulnerable groups, including the increase in the reception capacity for unaccompanied minors.
   
• Integration, including the introduction of a bilingual civic integration programme in the Brussels Capital Region from 2024 onwards.
   
• Statelessness, including the draft law introducing a residence procedure on the grounds of statelessness.
   
• Borders, Visa and Schengen, including pilot projects to digitalise visa application files in Iran, Russia and China.
   
• Irregular migration, including the work of Individual Case Management (ICAM) regional offices across all Belgian provinces.
   
• Trafficking in human beings, including the appointment of a national operational coordinator against trafficking in human beings and smuggling.
   
• Return and readmission, including efforts in facilitating voluntary returns, including through the Frontex Application for Return (FAR).
   
• Migration and development, including better monitoring of the nexus between migration and development.

The statistical annex, organised in ten thematic sections, including legal residence, temporary protection, asylum, unaccompanied minors, integration, irregular migration, return, and visas, provides the latest available statistics for Belgium on these aspects.

For further information, please read the Belgium Country Factsheet 2023 attached above.