They gathered at the church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage and at the Université libre de Bruxelles, setting up mattresses with signs displaying each of their jobs and calling for the Belgian government to grant them temporary residency, support to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and for the establishment of an independent body to oversee residency requests with clear criteria and in a timely manner.
"[9] Spokeswomen for the strikers, Cécile De Blick and Brenda Odimba, accused the Belgian state of having created an untenable situation in the first place.
[10] On 20 July 2021, two United Nations officials called for the Belgian government to grant temporary residence permits, with UN special rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty Olivier De Schutter stating that "the information we have received is alarming and several of the hunger strikers are between life and death.
Although it refused to implement any widespread policy changes, the government had promised that the hunger strikers would be able to go to a neutral zone and have their cases for residency evaluated individually.
"[14] In November 2021, four representatives of the hunger strikers accused the Belgian Secretary of State of Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi of "unprecedented betrayal."
According to Alexis Deswaef, Marie-Pierre de Buisseret, Mehdi Kassou and Daniel Alliet (the priest at the Beguinage Church) who jointly represented the hunger strikers at the negotiations with the Belgian government in July 2022, the government representatives have made clear promises to accept the requests by the individual hunger strikes to obtain a residence permit in Belgium.