IOM Conex: Engaging partnerships on migrant protection and assistance

CONEX is a one-year project that is funded by the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (FEDASIL) and is executed by IOM in Belgium and Luxembourg together with the partners of the CONEX network. The project aims to engage and strengthen partnerships on migration protection and assistance, hereby contributing to reaching, informing and offering services to migrants in Belgium who are in vulnerable situations, especially those residing outside of the formal reception network, to guarantee the protection of their basic rights and their orientation to a sustainable future.

Conex takes on a multi-level approach to informing migrants about their individual rights, by not only focusing on direct, individual support to migrants, but also by involving organizations and actors for migrant assistance and protection and by providing local authorities with tools to tailor their policies to the needs on the ground.

In order to improve the overall protection of migrants, the project includes research and mapping exercises, training and information sessions for partners, exchanges of good practices and the Incentive Fund. Read the Conex Infosheet 2025.

IOM Belgium and Luxembourg offers a wide range of trainings and info sessions. Organizations, companies and public institutions have the possibility to tap into this knowledge network that aims to build capacity and to facilitate the exchange of expertise at multiple levels across the regions of Belgium and beyond.

Find out more:

IOM Training catalogue

Through the 2025 Incentive Fund, CONEX also aims to support civil society organizations and public services in Belgium in setting up or continuing innovative community-based activities in Belgium linked to the wide range of protection tools for migrants. In these activities there is a specific attention towards reaching, informing and providing protection services to vulnerable groups of migrants, including those who are residing outside of the formal reception structures undocumented or in a precarious administrative situation and/or migrants who are difficult to reach by institutional services.

The 2025 Call is now open! Please have a look at the documents below for more information about the priorities and the submission criteria.

In need of some inspiration? Have a look at the six organisations that have been selected for the 2024 Incentive Fund: Oasis Belgium, CAW Zuid-West Vlaanderen, NADOE, BE Kitchen&Sudan Action Group, Alefa and La Maison de La Culture Albanaise. Click on the organisations to discover how they contributed to the protection of migrants in Belgium in 2024!

If you would like to be part of the Conex network or would like to be kept informed through our newsletter, please send an e-mail to jdeleye@iom.int and/or subscribe to the newsletter HERE.