The Belgian government will press ahead with one of its key migration policies
despite a court ruling suspending the measure, Migration Minister Anneleen Van
Bossuyt said Wednesday.
In a ruling last week, the country’s Constitutional Court put on hold a policy
that restricted the reception in Belgium of asylum-seekers who have already
received protection in another EU country.
The court said that limiting the assistance being offered to asylum-seekers “may
cause [them] serious harm that is difficult to repair” and may break EU law. It
referred the policy to the EU’s top court.
But in a statement Wednesday, Van Bossuyt argued that Belgian law makes it
possible to continue with the policy, saying: “We will, of course, make use of
these legal options. This is important in order to further reduce the influx and
avoid overburdening the reception system.”
Van Bossuyt, a member of the Flemish nationalist N-VA party of Prime Minister
Bart De Wever, insisted the measure is already in line with EU law — and that it
will be on an even stronger footing when the bloc’s new migration and asylum
pact, which will change how the continent processes and relocates
asylum-seekers, is implemented as of June 12.
“Then we’ll have the possibility to tackle asylum and reception shopping even
more explicitly,” Van Bossuyt argued.
She said Belgium’s measures reduced the number of people coming to Belgium who
had received protection elsewhere by 83 percent between September and December
last year, compared with the same period in 2024.
The Constitutional Court also suspended a measure that tightened provisions on
family reunification.