The migrants moved from the Beguinage Church in Brussels to a so-called “neutral zone”. In this zone, they can contact government officials to discuss their case and see whether they can stay in Belgium.

There will be no general pardon for the group, the responsible State Secretary Sammy Mahdi says. Some of the migrants, however, are probably allowed to stay in Belgium anyway. Exceptions are possible for distressing cases. And some hunger strikers are so weakened that they can get papers for that reason alone.

Several dozen participants have been hospitalized in recent days. “Hopefully, nobody is left with permanent injuries from this,” Mahdi tweeted.

Several hundred asylum seekers in the Begijnhofkerk have been refusing to eat since the end of May in the hope of enforcing residence papers for all of them. Some have stopped drinking since Friday.

Resignation

Many hunger strikers deteriorated rapidly, and some were in danger of succumbing. The latter would mean the end of the governing coalition. The deputy prime minister of the French-speaking social democrats had informed Prime Minister De Croo that he and his party members in the cabinet would immediately resign if a hunger striker died, wrote the French-language newspaper Le Soir.

The Walloon and Flemish liberals and the Flemish Christian Democrats, however, wanted Mahdi to persevere. They insisted that the hunger strikers be hospitalized against their will if necessary. On Sunday evening, dozens of ambulances suddenly appeared at the Begijnhof church in the Belgian capital, but they also disappeared without any results.

Responsible State Secretary Sammy Mahdi, a Flemish Christian Democrat, did not want to give in because he thinks it would not be fair. It would invite others to do the same.

Mahdi appointed ‘special envoy’ Dirk Van den Bulck on Monday to break the stalemate. The top official had to help the hunger strikers find their way into the Belgian asylum system, for example, to claim a scheme for distressing cases.

The Belgian government was very difficult to establish. It unites extremes such as the Walloon Greens and the Flemish Liberals. Coalition leaders attacked each other on Twitter over the migrant issue last weekend.