Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Data collection on asylum statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Asylum applications:
Asylum, first time and subsequent applicants by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Persons subject of asylum applications pending at the end of month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applications withdrawn by citizenship, age, sex and type of withdrawal (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applicants having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Applicants having benefited from material reception conditions at the end of the reference year;
Asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex.
Decisions on asylum applications:
First instance decisions on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted at first instance decision by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors);
Final decisions in appeal or review on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted as final decision in appeal or review by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors).
Resettled persons:
Resettled persons by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and country of previous residence;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and resettlement framework.
In March 2022, the European Commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive 2001/55/EC for people from Ukraine seeking refuge.
Temporary protection:
Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors).
3.2. Classification system
Similar as Eurostat.
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Asylum statistics.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Same definitions as Eurostat but resettled persons are included in publications made at national level (they are excluded from data transmitted to Eurostat).
Authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons is not applicable as a decision on asylum protection.
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.5. Statistical unit
Persons.
3.6. Statistical population
Foreigners and stateless persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.7. Reference area
Belgium
3.8. Coverage - Time
Time coverage according to Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, from January 2008, eventually January 2021.
Data on applicants processed under accelerated procedure are not available from January 2021 to December 2021 (derogation).
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of persons.
Calendar month, calendar quarter and calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The FPS (Federal Public Service) Home Affairs and its Statistics Unit (located in the DG Immigration Office) was officially designated as Other national statistical authorities.
FPS Home Affairs is the main actor in charge of the implementation of the legislation related to migration at national level, i.e. “Law of 15th December 1980 on access to the territory, residence, establishment and removal of aliens” (Legislation | IBZ).
Immigration Office is in charge of AMM (Asylum and Managed Migration) data collection in line with the mission of FPS Home Affairs.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, formalized this by communicating the name of the Statistical Service of the Immigration Office as another producer of European statistics, in particular concerning statistics relating to Asylum and Migration. By this statute of producer of European statistical data, the statistical service of the Immigration Office must therefore be considered as one of the “other Belgian statistical authorities” as defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Information on the existence of a national policy for (not) releasing the Asylum data before a certain time after the end of reference period has passed:
All statistical data are published within the regulatory deadlines. No national policy prevents us from publishing statistics before this deadline. Statistics are published when their quality is considered sufficient.
Required confidentiality by law and signed legal confidentiality commitments by survey staff:
All the officials of the Immigration Office have signed a declaration aimed at protecting the confidentiality of data.
Potential micro-data access for research purposes by external users and confidentiality provisions applied:
Access to micro-data is possible while respecting the general data protection regulation (regulation 2016/679). More information on the procedure implemented in this context can be requested from the Data Protection Officer of the Immigration Office. The contact details are available on the website of the Immigration Office:
This must be agreed upon when signing the memorandum of understanding to access the microdata.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
The metadata are complete and accessible online.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
This document gives some explanations on the methodology used to produce the Asylum statistics. There is also a methodology part at the end of each publication at national level, available on the Website of the immigration Office: Méthodologie | IBZ.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
The quality assessment is made in this document itself as well as at the end of the monthly reports that is published at national level and available on the Website of the immigration Office: Statistiques nationales | IBZ.
11.1. Quality assurance
Compilation of data is following the guidelines and instructions provided by Eurostat. Consistency validation checks are performed.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Good quality for all the datasets.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The statistics collected under Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 are used by a wide range of users at national, European and International level to cover various users need.
The Asylum statistics produced are regularly used by national administrations: academic researchers and civil society groups working on a wide range of topics including the integration of immigrants, the development and monitoring of national asylum and immigration procedures, and the projection of the future population and labour force.
The following national institutions and administration entities can be mentioned in this context: Immigration Office, Cabinet Ministers, Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, Federal agency for reception of asylum seekers (FEDASIL), Council for Alien Law Litigation, Federal Migration Centre, academic researchers...
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No survey was conducted.
12.3. Completeness
The required disaggregation for all datasets is complete.
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of the national asylum statistics is generally considered to be high.
For statistics about asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors, due to delays to receive age assessment’s results, the accuracy is not perfect.
The statistics on first-instance decisions on applications may be influenced by the number of newborns in decisions on refugee status.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
There are no discrepancies between the Eurostat and national target population.
The average delay in registering administrative events in the register is zero days from the day these events occurred.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
The data are compared to each other to identify possible differences before the consolidation of the data is made.
If a discrepancy is detected, it is corrected ASAP and before data is transmitted to Eurostat.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest: the first day of the month following the period.
Reasons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation: Absence, including for the agents of the service responsible for encoding, technical problem with the database or other technical problems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest: 15 days after the end of the reference period.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation: 15 days seems acceptable. No plan to improve that at this moment.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Data are delivered on time.
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The statistics are comparable between all regions of Belgium, as this topic falls under federal competence.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable over time.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
The data between sub annual and annual statistics are coherent.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
The coherence between the data and their source(s) is verified; if an incoherence is found, the error is corrected.
Asylum statistics are based on administrative data. Their production does not require any special costs or burden.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data is revised only if an error occurred.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are corrected or revised exceptionally:
due to error of transmission (wrong reference period, errors in data compilation…)
due to methodological improvements or introduction of new data sources.
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
National register database and administrative databases.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Asylum application statistics is consolidated each month (8 days after the end of the month).
Asylum decision statistics is consolidated each month (about 8 days after the end of the month).
18.3. Data collection
The sources of the data are:
the database of the Immigration Office;
the National Register.
18.4. Data validation
Data validations are performed monthly, such as checking population coverage, comparing with previous periods, checking for outliers, investigating inconsistencies in statistics (checking consistency of "Total" values over each variable), validating statistics against expectations and domain intelligence, confronting data with other relevant data, back check of data in the register.
18.5. Data compilation
Data is processed by the Immigration Office of Belgium, according to the rules for validation and control of the technical guidelines by Eurostat.
Data collection on asylum statistics contains statistical information based on the Article 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Asylum applications:
Asylum, first time and subsequent applicants by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Persons subject of asylum applications pending at the end of month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applications withdrawn by citizenship, age, sex and type of withdrawal (also for unaccompanied minors);
Asylum applicants having had their applications processed under the accelerated procedure by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Applicants having benefited from material reception conditions at the end of the reference year;
Asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors by citizenship, age and sex.
Decisions on asylum applications:
First instance decisions on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted at first instance decision by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors);
Final decisions in appeal or review on applications by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision (also for unaccompanied minors);
Decisions withdrawing status granted as final decision in appeal or review by citizenship, type of decision and type of reason (also for unaccompanied minors).
Resettled persons:
Resettled persons by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and country of previous residence;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and type of decision;
Resettled persons by citizenship, age, sex and resettlement framework.
In March 2022, the European Commission activated the Temporary Protection Directive 2001/55/EC for people from Ukraine seeking refuge.
Temporary protection:
Decisions granting temporary protection by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors);
Beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of the month by citizenship, age and sex (also for unaccompanied minors).
15 September 2025
Same definitions as Eurostat but resettled persons are included in publications made at national level (they are excluded from data transmitted to Eurostat).
Authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons is not applicable as a decision on asylum protection.
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Persons.
Foreigners and stateless persons.
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Belgium
Calendar month, calendar quarter and calendar year.
The accuracy of the national asylum statistics is generally considered to be high.
For statistics about asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors, due to delays to receive age assessment’s results, the accuracy is not perfect.
The statistics on first-instance decisions on applications may be influenced by the number of newborns in decisions on refugee status.
Number of persons.
Data is processed by the Immigration Office of Belgium, according to the rules for validation and control of the technical guidelines by Eurostat.
National register database and administrative databases.
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
Immigration Office publishes data relating to asylum applications monthly and annually.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest: the first day of the month following the period.
Reasons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation: Absence, including for the agents of the service responsible for encoding, technical problem with the database or other technical problems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest: 15 days after the end of the reference period.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation: 15 days seems acceptable. No plan to improve that at this moment.
The statistics are comparable between all regions of Belgium, as this topic falls under federal competence.
Data are comparable over time.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables Asylum’.
