An Arab refugee witnessing the G20 riots in Hamburg, Germany, believes that violent protesters would be shot if they tried the same act in Egypt.
“If people did this in Egypt they would be shot,” 29-year-old Ibrahim Ali from Egypt told Reuters. “The state provides everything: housing, unemployment benefits and education. Yet those people are not happy. I don’t get it.”
Another refugee, Mohammad Halabi, said the protesters were crazy for destroying their own country.
“They are crazy. I can’t believe my eyes,” Halabi, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee, told Reuters. “They have such a beautiful country, and they’re destroying it.”
The G20 is an annual meeting of leaders from 19 of the world’s major economies, in addition to the EU, and traditionally draws large protests. This time around, the agenda of topics included international trade, climate change and refugee policy.
In between serving food to protesters, Halabi ran towards the riots and took pictures of police firing water cannons and protesters lighting barricades on fire to send back to his family in Turkey. The violence didn’t seem to disturb Halabi much at all.
“This is nothing. I’m not scared,” he said. “Bombs falling on your neighborhood, that’s scary.”
While local shopkeepers in Hamburg now dealing with damage and destruction are enraged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to hold the G20 summit in the city, Halabi said he couldn’t possibly have any negative feelings towards Merkel, as she’s the one who embraced essentially an open door policy for refugees.
“Without her I wouldn’t be here,” Halabi said.
Police presence continued into Sunday morning, despite the fact that the leaders attending the summit had already left the city, as protesters continued to burn cars and barricades and destroy property.
Approximately 200 police officers have been injured since Thursday.
Part of the reason Merkel’s government chose Hamburg as the location for the summit is because the port city symbolizes commerce and globalism. Merkel has promised compensation for store owners whose shops and businesses suffered damage.
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