Thousands of people marched in Berlin on Sunday demanding that the government do more to help migrants stuck in Greece, many of whom have been made homeless since fires ravaged the country’s largest refugee camp.
The crowd marched through the capital to the landmark Victory Column carrying signs with slogans like “we have space” and “Seehofer, be a Christian” — a reference to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.
“I find it unacceptable that we live in one of the richest parts of the world and are somehow scared of 15,000 people and there is an eternal discussion about who will help these people,” one demonstrator, Oliver Bock, told Reuters.
More than 12,000 migrants and refugees fled the Moria refugee camp fire, which the Greek government says was deliberately set by a small group of Afghan migrants to protest a virus lockdown at the camp.
About 9,000 of them have now been moved into a new temporary facility on the island of Lesvos, government officials said on Saturday.
READ MORE: Greece to build permanent migrant centre on Lesvos to replace Moria.
Germany’s government said last week it would take in 1,553 migrants — 408 families with children — from various Greek islands who have already been granted protected status in Greece. The move came on top of a decision to take in up to 150 unaccompanied children as part of a European effort.
The weekend demonstrators demanded that Germany do more, and that the government not block independent state or municipal efforts to take in refugees themselves.
About 3,000 people had registered to take part in the march, but police told the dpa news agency the crowd numbered in the “mid four-digit range.”
