Last year, 964 refugees were resettled in Belgium, Fedasil said in a statement on Monday.
The initial objective was to resettle 1,463 people but “due to the saturation of the Fedasil reception network and an increase in asylum applications in Belgium, the arrival of other refugees is delayed,” the institution said, adding that priority has been given to the most vulnerable people.
“The resettlement programme consists of selecting and transferring refugees from a country where they have sought protection to a third country,” Fedasil explained.
Among these people were mainly Syrians (908) who were in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan or Egypt. The other resettled refugees came from Sudan (17), Eritrea (11), Ethiopia (10), South Sudan (7), Somalia (4), Turkey (4), Jordan (2) and Iraq (1).
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A total of 24 refugees arrived under the UN refugee agency's (UNHCR) evacuation programme, Fedasil said. These refugees were evacuated from detention centres in Libya.
Different reception trajectories are possible in Belgium, with most transferees staying for six weeks in one of the five Fedasil centres specialising in resettlement before moving on to individual accommodation managed by a partner organisation like the Public Centre for Social Welfare (PCSW) for six months.
The reception route can vary according to specific needs and profiles. Cities and municipalities, in cooperation with the PCSW, can provide housing for resettled persons and offer intensive support for at least one year.
People who were selected for resettlement but could not be transferred in December will travel in 2022.
