Undocumented Migrants in Brussels go on a Hunger Strike

The following extract was shared with us by one of our project contributors, Abdulazez Dukhan:

”It is been a month since the undocumented people started a hunger strike in St John the Baptist in Brussels – the symbolic church, which is known historically for standing with immigrants. Some of them have been in Belgium for 20 years, with no identity to allow them a doctor or to pay for electricity bills. ‘Wait’; is what they were told when they arrived and applied for asylum. Some of them waited for 3 to 5 years to be told that their applications had not been accepted. This is after they had started working, making friends and building a life here, and this is why they decided to stay and reapply for asylum, following Mohammad, who has been here for 18 years. Ambulances have been there a lot lately, due to bad health conditions as they enter the 4th week of hunger strike. If you lose your identity card today, you might get furious about what to do to get a new one, so how about living your whole life with no identity card?”