BELGIUM: Government’s negotiations with Taliban spark criticism ― Financial incentives to encourage returns to Syria ― NGOs concerned about conditions in migration detention centres ― Last asylum hotels closed despite ongoing concerns about shortage of…

• Belgium has participated in talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan regarding the return of individuals with criminal records or lacking identity documents.
• The government is planning to increase the reintegration support that it provides to Syrians who return to their country.
• A group of NGOs has raised serious concerns about the dire conditions in migration detention centres.
• The remaining hotels that were being used to accommodate asylum applicants have been closed.

Belgium has participated in talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan regarding the return of individuals with criminal records or lacking identity documents. In mid-January, Director General of the Immigration Office Freddy Roosemont travelled to Kabul for a three-day “administrative recognition mission” which was organised by the European Commission, partly at the initiative of Belgian Minister of Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt. Roosemont stated that the Afghan authorities had shown willingness to help identify undocumented Afghan nationals living in Europe, and a Taliban representative is expected to visit Belgium to negotiate practical arrangements for returns. Van Bossuyt has emphasised that Belgium does not share the Taliban regime’s values but that limited administrative co-operation with governments holding opposing worldviews was sometimes necessary to enable deportations. She described this as part of a “give-and-take” approach under which “countries that refuse to co-operate with us on returns cannot count on our full support in other areas” and which may also be applied in future engagement with both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Türkiye.

The revelations about the government’s engagement in negotiations with the Taliban regime have provoked a strong reaction from several NGOs working with refugees in Belgium. In an op-ed published in the Soir newspaper on 28 January, the head of the BelRefugees citizens platform, Mehdi Kassou, said: “One does not collaborate with an apartheid regime, just as one did not innocently collaborate yesterday with a regime accused of crimes against humanity, because such co-operation entails full political and moral responsibility”. “The linguistic precautions taken, or statements asserting a lack of “affinity” with those in power in Kabul, are therefore of little relevance,” he added.

The government is planning to increase the reintegration support that it provides to Syrians who return to their home country. According to the minister for asylum and migration, up to €5,000 will be provided to Syrian asylum applicants in the form of “assistance with housing, education, healthcare or, for example, starting an economic activity”. Speaking in advance of the informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 22 January in Nicosia, Van Bossuyt said that the support was intended to “encourage asylum seekers who are able to return to rebuild their lives in their country of origin as quickly as possible”. She added that it was “in the interests of the people themselves, but that it also represented a “significant saving for our country compared to accommodating them in an asylum centre”, and that the support would be “a one-off and, where possible, linked to an entry ban”.

A group of NGOs has raised serious concerns about the dire conditions in migration detention centres. Based on weekly visits to six centres and testimonies from more than 700 individuals, the Move Coalition has reported that living conditions remain well below acceptable standards with some detainees subjected to degrading treatment. The group was especially critical of the 127bis repatriation centre located close to Brussels Airport which it described as “more like a prison” that had reportedly experienced a bedbug infestation in October 2024 and which continued to struggle with staff shortages and both limited access to legal assistance and inadequate psychological support for the detainees.

The remaining hotels that were being used to accommodate asylum applicants have been closed. According to the minister for asylum and migration, the closure in mid-January of the five hotels which were housing approximately 400 people was possible due to a “significant decrease in the number of asylum applications”, despite at least 1,650 people being on the official waiting list for accommodation. Van Bossuyt defended the decision to close the hotels, citing the so-called ‘Brussels Deal’: an agreement between the Federal Government and the City of Brussels that is expected to create 2,000 additional places for those currently without shelter. Commenting on the decision, the head of the Coordination and Initiatives for Refugees and Foreigners (CIRÉ) NGO, Sotieta Ngo, denounced what she saw as the “political manoeuvring” involved in the deal which was, inher view, ultimately insufficient to meet the high demand for reception places.

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