Footballers stage sit-down protest before game in support of migrants

A football match was delayed when players staged a sit-down protest as a tribute to migrants who have died trying to reach Greece. The gesture happened before kick-off in the second-tier Greek football league game between AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos. As the match kicked off, all 22 outfield players - as well as the coaches, officials and substitutes - sat down for two minutes in a show of respect for the hundreds of refugees who have lost their lives trying to escape conflict or persecution in countries such as Iraq and Syria. A stadium announcer said it was a protest at the “brutal indifference” of the European Union and Turkey to their plight.

The players of AEL will protest by sitting down for two minutes in an effort to drive the authorities to mobilise all those who seem to have been desensitised to the heinous crimes that are being perpetrated in the Aegean.

Stadium announcement

The protest came hours before the latest boat sinking in which at least ten migrants, including five children, drowned. Their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece on Saturday, coastguards said. An unknown number of people were still missing and 43 passengers had been rescued. Greece is the main gateway for more than 1 million refugees who started arriving in Europe last year, many using small, overcrowded boats for the hazardous sea crossings.

larissa protest