"Sans Papiers" Hunger Strike

Some 200 "Sans Papiers" in the Saint Jean Baptiste du Béguinage church in Brussels and another 180 in two cafetarias on the VUB (Vlaamse Universiteit Brussel) and the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) are demonstrating by occupying the sites since the beginning of February in an attempt to obtain a regularisation of their status. Almost all of them have or had a job, pay a rent and have spent several years if not decades in Belgium without obtaining a legal status, thus preventing them to open a bank account or have access to unemployment or a pension. Their financial situation was heavily impacted by Covid-19, when more precarious job situations were lost, leaving them without an income. Similar demonstrations in 1999 and 2009 have led to mass regularisations, but the change in the political balance, with the current government risking to loose voices to the ever more present extreme right in the Flemish part of the country by taking a soft stance, make things less obvious this time. After more than 100 days of occupying the sites, the demonstrators have started a hunger strike on May 23rd.