AlQa'dah 17, 1436, September 01, 2015, SPA -- Thousands of people demonstrated Monday in the Austrian capital for legal immigration opportunities and better government care for refugees, dpa reported. Protesters carried signs reading "Open legal routes" and "Human dignity comes first" as they marched to the parliament building in central Vienna. Police estimated the size of the crowd at 20,000. After 71 migrant men, women and children were found dead last week in an air-tight food lorry east of Vienna, public sentiment that politicians have not been responding adequately to the wave of arrivals from Syria and other crisis countries has grown in Austria. In addition, media have carried worrying reports from Austria's largest refugee camp in Traiskirchen near Vienna, where hundreds were forced to sleep outside and basic services were no longer functioning as the facility was severely overcrowded. The government has responded in recent days by transferring people to other temporary shelters. However, private activists and the nongovernmental groups that organized the protest said authorities still needed to do more to ensure humane conditions by providing better shelter, food and medical care, and by improving cooperation with nonprofit aid groups. During the protest Austria's leaders gathered in Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral for a mass in memory of the 71 victims. The mass was attended by nearly the entire cabinet, including Chancellor Werner Faymann, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.
