Belgium's backlog of asylum applications is the highest it has been since 2016, according to new data provided to De Tijd by the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA).
The figures show that at the end of March the total number of unprocessed asylum applications stood at 21,237. The enormous backlog comes in spite of the fact that the number of monthly processed cases has increased relative to last year: last month, a total of 2,384 cases were processed, up from an average of 2,000 per month in 2022.
Despite the increase in processed claims, the CGRA has been unable to keep pace with the monthly rate of applications: since the beginning of 2023, more than 3,400 asylum applications have been transmitted each month to the CGRA.
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To clear the backlog, the CGRA has added some 150 new staff members. However, it is not expected that this will help clear the backlog any time soon, as the new recruits must first undergo training and are not yet able to work fully independently.
