GERMANY: Police in Munich have cleared a camp of asylum seekers who have been on hunger strike for a week

Record ID: 341172

  • Title: GERMANY: Police in Munich have cleared a camp of asylum seekers who have been on hunger strike for a week
  • Date: 30th June 2013
  • Summary: WOMAN WALKING ACROSS SQUARE WHERE CAMP WAS LOCATED (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASSER-BY STEPHAN REICHEL SAYING: "Now everything is cleaned up here and everything is in order. But the problem has not gone away. What I thought was a shame was that it needs such an action, a hunger strike, and even with the somewhat weird circumstances, to bring such a topic back into the society
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA89T8FPFRZ6V13XGCRGMSNMERA
  • Story Text: Police in Munich cleared a camp of asylum seekers in Munich in the early hours on Sunday (June 30) morning.
    More that 40 men and women, mostly from Africa and Asia, had been on hunger strike in the camp. They had been on a so-called dry hunger strike - refusing food and water - for about a week to draw attention to their plight and the plight of asylum seekers all over Germany.
    Doctors had previously warned that many of the protesters were in a critical condition.
    Talks broke down late on Saturday (June 29) night after it emerged that the protesters would not be granted asylum or even residence permits the police moved in on Sunday morning.
    Passersby on Munich's Rindermarkt square, where the camp was located, seemed to be pleased to have the square back but concerned about the plight of the protesters nevertheless.

    "Now everything is cleaned up here and everything is in order. But the problem has not gone away," said passer-by Stephan Reichel. "What I thought was a shame was that it needs such an action, a hunger strike, and even with the somewhat weird circumstances, to bring such a topic back into the society."
    And another passer-by, Rainer Leuthold said that he was worried about the health of the protesters: "I was there when they took eight people away (to the hospital), one after the other. At some point ... someone is going to die. And then everyone is outraged. I care for the well-being of the people."
    According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, city authorities had wanted to avoid moving protesters, because the protest was legal. But in a news conference on Sunday, the mayor of Munich Christian Ude said that "saving lives" had a "higher priority" than "the right to protest".

    "A doctor described the many cases in the camp where the life was in immediate danger. And the hospitals confirm that threw were some persons in a coma already" he said on Sunday after the camp had been cleared. "Hence the decision that saving of life has priority to the right to protest."
    According to city officials, 44 patients had been taken to a dozen hospitals for treatment.
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