The group has been fasting since last Wednesday in reaction to the Refugee Commission’s decision to repatriate over a thousand Afghan asylum seekers over the next nine months. “I would prefer to die of hunger than be forced to go back there,” 12-year-old Farid told Le Soir. Some 120 children have also made the central Brussels church their home in recent days, although only adults are carrying out the hunger strike. The Red Cross is keeping vigil at the Catholic church as well as a support team from Doctors Without Borders. Over 20 people needed medical assistance Saturday, with ten transferred to hospital before returning to the church. Five remain in medical care.
Refugees have had an open petition book running on the front stairs of the church, managing to collect some 200 signatures from local residents. Police have been despatched to aid circulation in the immediate area as ambulances are parked ominously with open doors at the entrance of the church, blocking a through road. Last week, Minister for the Interior Patrick Dewael announced that 1,100 Afghan asylum seekers would have to be repatriated to their country of origin within three to nine months, depending on their circumstances. The majority of the rejected asylum seekers have been waiting two years for the decision after having arrived in the country at the end of 2001 and beginning of 2002 in the weeks following the US intervention in Afghanistan. “There is no actual generalised threat in Afghanistan,” said the Refugee Commission’s commissioner general for refugees Pascal Desmet. “The European Union has estimated that it is time for repatriation operations to be set into motion,” he added. Although Dewael has not announced any plans to give in to the protesters demands to be able to stay in Belgium, Desmet has spoken to a delegation of refugees, explaining that they could still take their cases to a higher court.
