A German theatre troupe invited the public to pack into a refrigerated truck to give them a glimpse into the hardships experienced by people trying to reach Europe from war zones.



Organised by the Schauspielhaus Bochum theatre, the event was billed as a memorial to the 71 people, four of them children, who were found dead inside an abandoned lorry in Austria.

About 200 people took part in the event, entering a 7.5 tonne refrigerated truck similar in size to the one found in Austria.

Next to it on the ground was a rectangle marked out to measure 2.5 metres by six metres which represented the size of the original truck’s interior.

Seventy-one volunteers first tried to stand inside the rectangle before trying to cram inside the lorry. When they did the truck’s doors could not be closed.

“The lorry was completely full, the people were squeezed right up against each other,” explained Olaf Kroek, the theatre’s artistic adviser.

“This action is not disrespectful,” he said. “What is disrespectful is the political reality in Europe that people suffering so greatly hand over thousands of euros and must take such unsafe routes while for the rest of us Europeans it is so easy … to travel in the other direction.”

Germany is leading the way in allowing people in from conflict zones with some 800,000 expected to arrive this year. On Wednesday Germany, France and Italy issued a joint call for an overhaul of the 28-member bloc’s laws on the asylum rights to ensure a fairer distribution throughout the European Union.