EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY FUNERAL Protesters demonstrate against EU migrant policy by holding funeral for a drowned Syrian refugee in Berlin

Record ID: 151465

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GERMANY FUNERAL Protesters demonstrate against EU migrant policy by holding funeral for a drowned Syrian refugee in Berlin
  • Date: 16th June 2015
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (JUNE 16, 2015) (REUTERS) WIDE OF OPEN GRAVE AT BERLIN'S GATOW CEMETERY, ROWS OF EMPTY CHAIRS IN BACKGROUND RESERVED FOR INVITED "DIGNITARIES" WHO DID NOT SHOW UP EUROPEAN UNION FLAGS FLYING, ZOOM IN ON GERMAN FLAG WIDE OF EMPTY CHAIRS NAME TAG ON CHAIR READING "GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL" WIDE OF EMPTY CHAIRS NAME TAG ON CHAIR READING "GERMAN INTERIOR
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAYX4F9G885R36BG2V3O2ZY13S
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A German activist group on Tuesday (June 16) used the funeral of a young Syrian woman, who drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to flee her worn-torn country, to demonstrate against the European Union's migrant policy.
    According to group known as the "Centre for Political Beauty", the woman, who had a husband and four children, died when the boat she and her family were travelling on from Libya to Italy capsized. Around 40 people were on board the boat at the time.
    The 34-year old drowned, along with her 2-year-old daughter whose body was never found.
    In agreement with her family, the activist group said they had exhumed the woman's body after she was buried in an unnamed grave in Sicily, and brought it to Germany to give her a dignified funeral. A second coffin was placed next to the grave to symbolise her dead daughter.
    "The least we can offer people like them is to bury them with dignity. We could not offer them something else, to keep them alive. Maybe we could have, but for whatever reasons, we missed our chance, because of cowardice, laziness or the inability to think, bureaucracy or because we did not campaign for them politically, socially, culturally," said the Imam, Abdallah Hajjir during the ceremony, which took place in the Muslim area of a cemetery in Berlin's western district of Gatow.
    The group say they have exhumed the bodies of several migrants who were buried in unnamed graves in Italy which they plan to take to different parts of Europe for re-burial.
    They say the move, which they have named "The Dead are Coming", is a protest against the European migrant policies which they say continues to be the cause for the continuing migrant rescues, often deadly, taking place in the Mediterranean.
    This burial in particular was used to accuse German politicians of not acting properly or doing enough to help migrants who are fleeing their countries.
    Directly opposite the grave stood a flat podium on which several chairs had been placed. The chairs remained empty but each one had a name on it, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere.
    "You made this woman take to the sea when you decided to militarily secure the borders. This woman was heading for Germany looking for safety. She had every right to do so. Today she has arrived. But she is no longer alive. Chancellor Merkel, how would you define tastelessness? Mr. de Maiziere, can you still sleep at night with this guilt?," said Stefan Pelzer, a member of the Centre for Political Beauty.
    The family of the dead woman did not take part in the funeral. Her husband and three remaining children have applied for asylum in Germany and are waiting for an answer from the relevant authorities but due to the country's regulations, they were not allowed to travel to Berlin from their current place of residence.
    Nearly 90,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, double the rate of 2014, while at least 1,850 drowned or are missing at sea, according to the UNHCR.
    On Monday (June 15), the German navy saved more than 500 migrants from damaged wooden boats off the coast of Libya.
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