Source: The Local
On September 8, a group of 20 asylum seekers and activists set off on foot from the southern German city of Würzburg. As they marched up the country, banners in hand, they stopped off at different refugee shelters, urging fellow Flüchtlinge to join them.
The group grew to 200 people, some of whom travelled to the city in buses organised by the Refugee Tent Action, a group that organised and successfully executed the protest march.
Twenty eight days after leaving, the protesters arrived in Berlin and pitched camp on Oranienplatz, in the multicultural district of Kreuzberg. Since October 6, more tents have sprung up, signalling that the group intends to stay until their voices are heard.
‘The government refuses to accept that I exist’
Humming with music and bustling with people on Wednesday evening, the city-centre camp consisted of about 10 large marquee tents and a scattering of smaller ones. Passing Berliners walk past and pick up information leaflets from the welcome hut.
“The right to asylum is not a privilege, it is a human right,” said one slogan on a large poster. “In refugee camps we have forgotten the life outside the walls so that we even forget how days passed before we lived there,” says the Tent Action manifesto.