For about ten weeks now, people from Sierra Leone have been protesting outdoors day and night, fearful of being deported to the West African state after some years in Munich. They have now set up the peaceful protest camp on Königsplatz, but the cold is increasingly bothering people.
On Monday, Caritas, together with the Green City Councilor Nimet Gökmenoğlu, managed to have a supply bus there where people can warm up and drink tea. In addition, they should be given advice together with supporters on where they can shower and also receive warm meals.
Many of the protesters do not come from Munich, but from all over Bavaria. But they are demonstrating here for a permanent right to stay after employees of the Embassy of Sierra Leone had checked in hearings since mid-October whether the people actually came from the country. Allegedly, there is as yet no indication of what the results of the controversial surveys could mean for the former refugees.
For the Green politician Nimet Gökmenoğlu, it is “a major concern” that the protest camp can continue to be “humane”. A good week ago politicians from the SPD, the Left and the Greens found out about the situation of the people in the small camp on Königsplatz. It turned out that health care, protection from the cold and also people’s desire for corona vaccinations are acute issues for the protesters. Warm meals are available for them in nearby St. Bonifaz, where a vaccination campaign takes place in mid-December. How long the people will hold out in the cold on Königsplatz and protest against deportations remains to be seen.