Asylum seekers continue to protest in Austurvöllur square outside the Icelandic parliament, Stundin reports. Several spent the night in the square on Tuesday, doing their best to stay warm in sleeping bags. The protesters have now raised a large tent for shelter from the snow and rain.
The night was frosty, according to Milad, a refugee from Iran. “It was freezing cold, but we could do it because we had made a decision. We will be here until our demands are met. We will not leave here until we’ve achieved something. We are serious.”
Asylum seekers and their supporters have been protesting for weeks, calling for an end to deportations, as well as due process on all applications and equal access to healthcare. The group is calling for talks with the government in the presence of the state mediator, in a similar fashion to wage negotiations.
Protest organisers met with representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday at a meeting hosted by the Icelandic Red Cross. Elínborg Harpa Önundardóttir, an activist and member of No Borders Iceland, called the meeting “a spectacle, more or less,” where activists were told it “just wasn’t possible” to acquiesce to any of their demands.
