Campaigners placed 13,000 chairs outside the German parliament building in Berlin on Monday, in a symbolic protest calling for the overcrowded migrants camps in Greek islands to be shut down.

Each chair represented one of the people stuck in terrible conditions in the Moria camp on Lesbos island, Greece's largest reception camp, said the organising groups, Seebruecke, Sea-Watch, Campact and LeaveNoOneBehind.

Each chair represented one of the migrants stuck in Greece's biggest island camp for igrants on Lesbos
Each chair represented one of the migrants stuck in Greece's biggest island camp for igrants on Lesbos AFP / Tobias SCHWARZ

The chairs also recalled that German communes and states, with Berlin at the head, have said they are ready to take responsibility for migrants languishing in the insalubrious camps on several Greek islands.

"The Bundestag was on holiday this summer, the humanitarian catastrophe at the EU external borders was not," the groups said in a statement.

Last week Greece announced the first coronavirus case in the Moria camp.

Green party politician Margarete Bause holds up a sign reading "Enable Admission" outside the Reichstag as the 13,000 chairs were being set up
Green party politician Margarete Bause holds up a sign reading "Enable Admission" outside the Reichstag as the 13,000 chairs were being set up AFP / John MACDOUGALL

Almost 13,000 people live in Moria, which is only meant to have capacity for fewer than 2,800.

Overall, there are nearly 24,000 people in five Greek island camps built to handle fewer than 6,100.

An Aerial view of the Moria camp on Lesbos island, taken last month
An Aerial view of the Moria camp on Lesbos island, taken last month AFP / ARIS MESSINIS

Germany has taken in 465 people from these camps, mostly sick children and their families.

Berlin alone has promised to take in over a thousand.

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