Migrants end hunger strike in Belgium

The announcement came after authorities announced that some may invoke “special circumstances” to obtain a residence permit.

Many of the nearly 400 migrants have been living in Belgium for years, and the situation worsened on Wednesday when many of them refused to get water.

According to Doctors Without Borders, which took care of people at the two universities and the church they lived in, they would “die in a few days” without water.

Later in the day, Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo welcomed the announcement to end the hunger strike as “the only right thing to do”.

Until then, De Croo had She refused to make any exceptions to the current asylum and immigration rules on hunger strike.

But two out of seven Belgian parties in de Croce’s ruling coalition criticized the prime minister, calling him too inflexible. The two parties also threatened to leave the alliance if an immigrant died – which would topple the entire Belgian government and plunge Belgium into a political crisis.

Most of the immigrants are from Morocco, Algeria and North Africa.

For their part, the Belgian authorities have argued that both Morocco and Algeria are stable countries and that there is no reason to grant asylum.