Germany is an incredibly multicultural country, due in part to its membership of the European Union and its border policy which saw hundreds of thousands of refugees come through. But subsequently, a staggering number of hate crimes have been committed against immigrants.

However a German supermarket has taken the extraordinary step of removing all foreign objects for a day, to highlight to its citizens how much the country depends on outside sources.

The shelves at the Edeka supermarket in Hamburg were virtually empty, with signs posted around the store saying, 'this shelf is quite boring without variety' and 'our selection knows borders today'.

German supermarket

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Credit: CEN



The Spanish tomatoes were gone, so too were the olives from Greece Cheese, meanwhile, was virtually non-existent. The campaign appears to have gone down well with people on social media.

Great idea. I commend Edeka in Hamburg for thinking of it! https://t.co/X1BHxmvWSc

- Barry J Reed (@TsarReed) August 21, 2017

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A spokesman for the company says: "Edeka stands for diversity, and we produce a wide range of food in our assortment, which is produced in the different regions of Germany.

"But it is together with products from other countries that we create the unique diversity that our customers value.

"We are delighted to have received a lot of positive feedback regarding Saturday's action."

German supermarket

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Credit: CEN



At the start of the year, there were still more than 400,000 refugee applicants waiting for approval after arriving in 2015. Syrians made up the bulk of the group who arrived during the refugee crisis two years ago, followed by Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Eritreans and Albanians.

Figures obtained by the BBC show that there were 10 attacks on migrants every day last year. Five hundred and sixty people were injured in targeted violence, with nearly 1,000 attacks on housing. Refugee organisations and volunteers also suffered the wrath of locals, with more than 200 being attacked.