Outside the Reichstag in Berlin, German MPs and journalists were invited to experience the plight of refugees coming into Europe via the Mediterranean by boarding a boat once used by migrants to make the crossing. Sea Watch, an organisation that finds and helps boats stranded at sea, was behind the event.

Hannah Butler, one of the journalists who took part, wrote in thelocal.de that the short trip around the harbour on the cramped boat left her feeling "aching and terrified". She went on to say that "worse than the lack of space and the discomfort was how helpless the whole thing made you."

The organisers were reportedly happy with the turn out, though said they would have liked to see more MP from parties whose minds they needed to change – those from the governing CDU and CSU.

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