OVER 1,000 members of the public staged a peaceful demonstration in Valladolid (Castilla y León) yesterday (Saturday) calling for more help for refugees attempting to enter Europe.
They lay down on the city's artificial riverside beach, the Playa de las Moreras (pictured below), simulating being the bodies of would-be migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas making the perilous crossing in barely-seaworthy boats.
They had intended to gather 5,000 participants in the 'show' which was titled Sueños Ahogados ('Drowned Dreams') to represent each one of the 5,000 who lost their lives in 2016 alone.
Campaigners are calling for a 'humanitarian corridor' to 'stop the catastrophe once and for all'.
They remained silent for five minutes lying on the sand, with only a recording of the sound of waves breaking, in a symbolic act of 'reflecting on the tragedy'.
Spain's government has been one of the most open to taking in and resettling refugees and has one of the most welcoming attitudes to migrants in all of Europe, but is still well below its target of 27,000 by September this year.
In response to widespread public criticism from the Spanish public about how barely 2,000 people fleeing war and poverty have been given shelter in the country, foreign affairs minister Alfonso Dastis has stressed the government is 'doing all it can'.
