On Saturday 160,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona, demanding that the government allows more refugees into Spain from Syria and other crisis-hit countries. Protesters claimed that despite its pledge to take 17,000 refugees into the country in 2015, the Madrid government only accepted 1,100 refugees. The route took them from the Barcelona city center to the Mediterranean coast - an end-point seen as highly symbolic given the fact that about 5,000 refugees are estimated to have perished in the sea last year.