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In Pictures

Gallery|Migration

Norway activists stand up for migrants drowning at sea

Norwegian protesters use paper boats and “die-ins” to demonstrate migrants’ plight and demand more rescue action.

Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
Oslo activists staged a 'die-in' protest in front of Norway's parliament building to demand greater action to aid refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
By Ryan Rodrick Beiler
Published On 6 May 20156 May 2015
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Oslo, Norway – In response to the increasing number of migrants facing possible death on overcrowded boats fleeing Africa across the Mediterranean, Norwegian activists staged creative protests to bring attention to the crisis and to apply pressure on their government to up its response.

“The Norwegian government is doing as little as they can get away with here. And we’re trying to make sure they don’t get away with it,” said Rune Bergelund Steen, director of the Norwegian Centre Against Racism, at the April 29 protest where activists staged a “die-in” at the plaza in front of Stortinget, Norway’s parliament building.

Since the beginning of the year, some 5,000 migrants have drowned as their boats capsized in Mediterranean waters. In the worst such incident, an estimated 800 people died when their boat sank as it attempted to reach Italy.

Currently, Norway has pledged just two boats to join European Union efforts to patrol territorial waters, known as Operation Triton. But activists demanded a swifter and bigger response – not simply returning migrants to places where their lives are endangered, where they may again choose to risk death in another sea crossing.

“What we need is a full-scale broad rescue operation and anything less than that is shameful,” said Bergelund Steen.

“What we decide to do here – or not to do here – has the most direct consequences for whether people live or die.”

Many of the banners in Oslo’s May Day parade expressed solidarity with refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa. And on Monday, many of the same protesters from last week’s “die-in” returned to Stortinget with hundreds of paper boats. Local school children – many of them children of refugees -participated by making their own paper boats.

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“People are running away from war and hunger and we have to do something now,” said Ingrid Aspelund of Norwegian People’s Aid who organised Monday’s protest.

“We want the government to send boats to the Mediterranean right now. Not in two weeks, not in two months, but now – today.”

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Oslo activists held either crosses or crescents to symbolise the dead during a flash mob protest demanding more efforts to rescue refugees crossing the Mediterranean. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
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Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
An Oslo activist lies wrapped in the Syrian flag during the protest in front of Norway's parliament building. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
Bystanders pass a 'die-in' protest symbolising refugees who have died crossing the Mediterranean. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
Activists organised by Amnesty International show solidarity with Syrian refugees during the Oslo May Day parade. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
A Norwegian flag is seen among hundreds of paper boats displayed in front of the parliament building in Oslo to demand that more vessels be sent to rescue refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
Norwegian youth fold paper boats to be placed in front of the parliament building. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
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Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
Oslo schoolchildren make their contribution to hundreds of paper boats gathered in front of the Norwegian parliament building. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
A Moroccan refugee to Norway (left) now teaching in an Oslo school helps his students make their boats. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
A Norwegian child shows off her paper boat. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]
Norway protests/DO NOT USE/RESTRICTED
'The rain and these wet paper boats, it's so sad. It makes it so real,' said Innocent Zanele Baqwa, a refugee from South Africa who came to Norway in 1965. [Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Al Jazeera]


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