BRUSSELS, May 8 (UPI) -- Asylum-seekers in Belgium have used mass protests, sit-ins and hunger strikes to press for the right to remain in the country.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael has remained firm.
"Most of them simply don't come into consideration for asylum or regularization," he said Sunday on the television show "De Zevende Dag." "Often, they have not lodged an application, initiated no procedure or were a given negative assessment years ago."
Jan de Volder, a spokesman for the Egidius Community Monastery in Antwerp, which has been occupied by asylum seekers, accused Dewael of inconsistency, Expatica reported. De Volder said that Dewael has granted some hunger strikers asylum, suggesting that he will bend to protestors willing to use extreme measures.
De Volder said that he does not want a change in the law but believes the government should speed up the process so that people are not left in limbo for years, and give legal status to those who have become integrated into Belgium.
