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Campaigners on Monday placed 13,000 chairs outside the German parliament building in Berlin, in a symbolic protest calling for the overcrowded migrant camps in Greek islands to be shut down, Al Jazeera reported.

Each chair represented one of the people stuck in terrible conditions in the Moria camp on Lesbos island, Greece's largest reception camp, said the organising groups, Seebruecke, Sea-Watch, Campact and LeaveNoOneBehind.

The chairs also recalled that German communes and states, with Berlin at the head, have said they are ready to take responsibility for migrants languishing in the insalubrious camps on several Greek islands.

"The Bundestag was on holiday this summer, the humanitarian catastrophe at the EU [European Union] external borders was not," the groups said in a statement.

Last week, Greece announced the first coronavirus case in the Moria camp.

Almost 13,000 people live in Moria, which is meant to have a capacity of fewer than 2,800.

Overall, there are nearly 24,000 people in five Greek island camps built to handle fewer than 6,100 people.