Author
Overview of statistical practice
The Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless persons (CGRS) publishes monthly statistical reports, providing information on asylum applicants and first-instance decisions.[1] In addition, statistical information may be found in the Contact Meetings on International Protection reports, bringing together national authorities, UNHCR and civil society organisations,[2] and in annual reports of national asylum authorities.[3]
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: figures for 2025[4]
| Applicants in 2025 (1) | Pending at
end of 2025 (2) |
Total decisions in 2025 (3) | Total in merit decisions (4) | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | Humanitarian protection (5) | In merit rejection (6) | Total rejection (7) | |
| Total | 34,439 | 24,406 | 31,457 | 20,296 | 8,369 | 618 | N/A | 11,284 | 19,006 |
| Breakdown by top 10 countries of origin in terms of number of applications | |||||||||
| Afghanistan | 3,947 | N/A | 3,331 | 1,971 | 1,437 | 1 | N/A | 533 | 1,836 |
| Palestine | 3,395 | N/A | 5,031 | 1,374 | 1,270 | 0 | N/A | 104 | 3,338 |
| Eritrea | 2,671 | N/A | 1,694 | 1,444 | 1,216 | 125 | N/A | 103 | 309 |
| DRC | 2,422 | N/A | 1,785 | 1,569 | 246 | 24 | N/A | 1,299 | 1,442 |
| Turkey | 2,370 | N/A | 1,707 | 1,429 | 670 | 0 | N/A | 759 | 863 |
| Burundi | 1,501 | N/A | 950 | 931 | 365 | 0 | N/A | 566 | 577 |
| Syria | 1,454 | N/A | 627 | 101 | 87 | 0 | N/A | 14 | 394 |
| Cameroon | 1,351 | N/A | 827 | 661 | 160 | 21 | N/A | 480 | 594 |
| Guinea | 1,334 | N/A | 877 | 706 | 308 | 0 | N/A | 398 | 546 |
| Moldova | 818 | N/A | 371 | 198 | 1 | 0 | N/A | 197 | 289 |
| Other | 13,176 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Source: Data provided by the CGRS, April 2026.
(1) In 2025, 27,574 persons applied for international protection in Belgium for the first time, 6.865 persons introduced a subsequent (2nd, 3rd, …) application.
(2) Decisions are pending in 24,406 files, concerning 31,085 persons.
(3) This number includes both final and intermediary decisions (e.g. decision for further assessment at the border or admission for subsequent application). Decisions were taken in 25,920 files, concerning 31,457 persons.
(4) This number excludes: the number of persons for whom a further assessment at the border was decided or whose subsequent application was declared admissible (1,105), the number of persons whose application was declared inadmissible (7,458), the number of persons whose status was ended or revoked (264), the number of persons whose procedure was ended before a decision was made (e.g. renunciation, technical closure, etc) (2,408).
(5) Humanitarian protection is not used as a form of international protection in Belgium and are therefore not represented in the asylum statistics.
(6) This includes both the number of decisions refusing refugee status and subsidiary protection status (10,541), the number of decisions for manifestly unfounded applications (634) and the number of decisions of exclusion of international protection (109).
(7) This number includes in-merit rejections (see (6)), decisions of inadmissibility (7,458) and decisions by which a protection status was ended or revoked (264). It does not include decisions by which an asylum procedure was ended before a decision was made (e.g. renunciation, technical closure, …).
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: in merit rates for year 2025
The rates are calculated based on in merit decisions only, excluding non-in merit decisions, thus excluding the number of persons for whom a further assessment at the border was decided or whose subsequent application was declared admissible, the number of persons whose application was declared inadmissible, the number of persons whose status was ended or revoked and the number of persons whose procedure was ended before a decision was made (e.g. renunciation, technical closure, etc).
| In merit protection rate | Refugee rate | Subsidiary
protection rate |
Rejection rate | |
| Total | 44% | 41% | 3% | 56% |
|
Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers |
||||
| Afghanistan | 73% | 72.9% | 0.1% | 27% |
| Palestine | 92% | 92% | 0% | 8% |
| Eritrea | 85% | 84% | 1% | 15% |
| DRC | 17% | 15.7% | 1.3% | 83% |
| Turkey | 47% | 47% | 0% | 53% |
| Burundi | 39% | 39% | 0% | 61% |
| Syria | 86% | 86% | 0% | 14% |
| Cameroon | 27% | 24% | 3% | 73% |
| Guinea | 44% | 44% | 56% | 44% |
| Moldova | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0% | 99.5% |
| Other | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Source: Calculations made by the author of the report, based on the data (raw numbers) provided by the CGRS in March 2026.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2025
| Men | Women | |
| Number | 21,962 | 12,477 |
| Percentage | 63.8% | 36.2% |
Source: Information provided by the Immigration Office, March 2026
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2025[5]
It should be noted that, during the same year, the first instance and appeal authorities handle different caseloads. Thus, the decisions below do not concern the same applicants.
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 31,457 | 100% | 7,710 | 100% |
| Positive decisions | 8,987 | 28.57% | 1,529 | 19.83% |
|
8,369 | 26.6% | 522 | 6.77% |
|
618 | 1.96% | 29 | 0.38% |
|
N/A | N/A | 978 | 12.68% |
| Negative decisions | 22,470 | 71.43% | 6,211 | 80.56% |
Source: Statistics CGRS and data published on the website of the CALL[7]
[1] CGRS, Figures, available in English, Dutch and French here.
[2] The Federal Migration Centre, Myria, organises monthly contact meetings for representatives of government instances, NGO’s and international organisations for exchange of information related to international protection. Reports of these meetings are publicly available in French and Dutch here.
[3] Immigration Office, Activity reports, available in French and Dutch at: https://dofi.ibz.be/en/figures/activity-reports; Council of Alien Law Litigation, Year reports, available in French and Dutch at: https://www.rvv-cce.be/fr/cce/rapports-annuels.
[4] Data provided by the CGRS in March 2026. Yearly statistics of the CGRS are also publicly available here: CGRS, ‘Asylum statistics December 2025’, available in English, French and Dutch here. The statistics provided concern the number of persons, not files (that may include several persons). The numbers provided by the CGRS may sometimes slightly differ from the number published online; for this report, mostly the numbers provided directly by the CGRS are used, unless for certain numbers which were only available in the public statistics. This may lead to minor differences in the sum of certain totals.
[5] The rates are calculated based on all decisions, including non in merit decisions. The data represent the number of persons for whom a decision was taken.
[6] The CALL can cancel decisions and send the file back to the CGRS, if it believes that it does not have sufficient information to make an informed decision on an appeal. In this case, the CGRS is required to provide addition information and arguments after which it can give a new decision to the applicant. This is listed as ‘other’ in this table
[7] CGRS, ‘Asylum statistics December 2025’, available in English, French and Dutch here; Data on the in- and output of the CALL, available here.