A new transparency report leaked to Belgian daily De Standaard shows that 20 % of the country’s 105 reception facilities for asylum seekers—and fully half of those operated directly by the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil)—do not comply with the organisation’s own minimum-space and privacy benchmarks. The data, confirmed by Fedasil on Friday, highlight chronic overcrowding and infrastructure fatigue in a network that has faced record inflows and political gridlock over capacity expansion.
Under Fedasil guidelines each resident should have at least four square metres of personal sleeping space and families should be housed in private rooms of at least eight square metres. Inspectors found multiple sites where several unrelated families were sharing a single room, while older buildings struggled with mould, inadequate sanitation and insufficient separation of unaccompanied minors from adult males.
![Audit Reveals Half of Fedasil-Run Asylum Centres Fall Short of Minimum Standards]()
Belgium’s reception system has been under legal pressure since 2021, when courts began imposing penalty payments on the state for failing to offer shelter to registered applicants. The new figures risk fresh litigation and could further erode confidence among EU partners, some of whose courts—including in the Netherlands—have already declined to return Dublin-case asylum seekers to Belgium citing systemic deficiencies.
For global-mobility teams, the findings matter because reception bottlenecks complicate family-reunification timelines, lengthen work-permit processing and fuel local political debate that may harden immigration policy. Employers relocating staff under single-permit or Blue-Card schemes should anticipate longer lead times, particularly when dependants require visas, and monitor municipal capacity constraints that affect registration appointments.
The government has pledged €150 million for emergency renovations and is negotiating with regional authorities to convert unused military barracks and student dormitories into temporary housing, but critics warn that without structural funding and faster asylum adjudication the system will remain overstretched.
Under Fedasil guidelines each resident should have at least four square metres of personal sleeping space and families should be housed in private rooms of at least eight square metres. Inspectors found multiple sites where several unrelated families were sharing a single room, while older buildings struggled with mould, inadequate sanitation and insufficient separation of unaccompanied minors from adult males.
Belgium’s reception system has been under legal pressure since 2021, when courts began imposing penalty payments on the state for failing to offer shelter to registered applicants. The new figures risk fresh litigation and could further erode confidence among EU partners, some of whose courts—including in the Netherlands—have already declined to return Dublin-case asylum seekers to Belgium citing systemic deficiencies.
For global-mobility teams, the findings matter because reception bottlenecks complicate family-reunification timelines, lengthen work-permit processing and fuel local political debate that may harden immigration policy. Employers relocating staff under single-permit or Blue-Card schemes should anticipate longer lead times, particularly when dependants require visas, and monitor municipal capacity constraints that affect registration appointments.
The government has pledged €150 million for emergency renovations and is negotiating with regional authorities to convert unused military barracks and student dormitories into temporary housing, but critics warn that without structural funding and faster asylum adjudication the system will remain overstretched.
