Belgium removed Georgia from the list of safe countries of origin. The said list is updated every year in Brussels according to the latest developments in countries, considering the adherence to the rule of law, protection of human rights, functioning of democratic institutions, and political stability.
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“Belgium may trigger reevaluation in other EU countries. That’s why there are growing dangers that the suspension of visa-free EU travel will be put on the agenda,” Stated Salome Samadashvili, a member of parliament from the Lelo party, who served as the ambassador of Georgia to Belgium and Luxembourg in 2005-2013.
Georgia has been on the list of safe countries since 2016 alongside Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and India.
By the decision of the Belgian government, all these countries remained on the recently revised list but Georgia, considering that they meet the criteria provided by the law.
Georgian ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Belgium, Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, says that the removal of Georgia from the list of safe countries may be related to a technical error or certain statistical data.
“We held active consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, and I can openly say that the Ministry displayed a positive attitude and recommended Georgia remain on the list of safe countries. Therefore, such decisions are sometimes made based on certain technical and statistical data,” stated Makharoblishvili.
In the running year, we have a drop in asylum seekers. We had discussions with the Ministries of Foreign and Internal Affairs, internal talks are also underway between the Belgian agencies, and they will probably clarify the specific, possibly technical or statistical reasons in the near future,” stated Makharoblishvili.
As for the suspension of a visa-free policy, according to the ambassador, visa-free travel to the EU is not in danger and there has been no communication from the European Union regarding this.
The Belgian Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons grants protection status to citizens of safe countries only if they can prove that the country is not safe in their case.
In January-June 2023, 409 citizens of Georgia requested international protection in Belgium. Georgia is among the top ten countries whose citizens request protection in Belgium most often.
