Belgium accommodates 43 refugees per day in first 11 months
Xinhua, December 29, 2016 Adjust font size:
Belgium accommodated 14,241 asylum seekers in the first 11 months of 2016, equivalent to roughly 43 refugees every day, local media reported on Thursday.
The number is over a third more than that of 2015, when 10,798 were recognized as refugees in Belgium, said the Flemish newspaper De Tijd, citing figures revealed by the Belgian General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGVS).
It added that the record-high number is the result of a drastic rise in applications in 2015, as the application process usually lasts from six months to one year.
In 2015, 44,760 people applied for asylum in Belgium, reaching a historical peak. The previous record was set in 2000, when 42,691 people applied for asylum, mainly from the Balkan countries.
Most of the refugees recognized in Belgium this year came from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the CGVS website.
The CGVS figures also showed that by the end of November this year, the number of recorded applications was 17,131, corresponding to the level before the refugee crisis. Endit