Undocumented migrants on hunger strike in Brussels fight for legal status

Asylum seekers requesting to be regularised by the Belgian government to have access to healthcare, are seen in a room on the campus of Belgium university ULB, where hundreds of migrants are going on hunger strike for more than a month, in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Tension over a weeks-long hunger strike by hundreds of undocumented migrants in Belgium's capital has mounted after four of them stitched their lips shut to stress their demands for legal recognition and access to work and social services.

Aid workers say that more than 400 migrants, holed up at two universities and a church in Brussels, stopped eating on May 23 and their health is deteriorating.