Aid organisations laid out 2,500 lifejackets symbolizing refugee crossings to Europe in a demonstration outside the British parliament on Monday timed to coincide with a United Nations summit on the worldwide migrant crisis.
Advertisement
Each of the 2500 jackets represents three refugees who have died crossing from Turkey to Greece.
Volunteers with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and World Vision charities helped display 2,500 life vests outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday, according to TIME.
Dozens of volunteers gathered in Parliament Square at 5 a.m. on September 19 to unload a lorry containing thousands of lifejackets to create the “graveyard”.
She will warn that the large-scale movements being seen around the world are not in the interests of migrants or the countries they are leaving, travelling through or seeking to reach. They represent a snapshot of what refugees go through and are an illusion of safety; many of them are not even seaworthy.
“On the day of the United Nations refugee summit in NY, we ask the politicians: how many more people have to die at sea?” the spokesperson said.
Refugee charity Women for Refugee Women spent the morning of September 19 among the 2,500 lifejackets, reflecting on the lost lives they represent, a spokesperson told Mashable. The jackets serve as a visual reminder of the suffering and risks hundreds of thousands of refugees have endured.
On the day the United Nations meets in NY to discuss the refugee crisis, organizers in London created a poignant reminder of the plight facing refugees.
“On the day of the United Nations refugee summit in NY, we ask politicians: how many more people have to die at sea?” a spokeswoman for Women for Refugee Women said.
Advertisement
Nearly 300,000 people – made up of migrants and refugees – have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year.
