Six members of Médecins Sans Frontières staged a unique protest yesterday morning, swimming in Berlin’s Spree River in front of the Reichstag, which houses the German parliament.

The protestors pushed a 2.5 metre styrofoam ‘message in a bottle’ reading: “Humane treatment for migrants everywhere”.

The group, protesting about the EU’s refugee policy called on the new German government to push for better treatment of asylum seekers in Europe.

The worst-off refugees, according to organisers of yesterday’s protest, were those reaching Malta, Greece and Italy by boat.

The demonstration was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs and paintings created by refugees in Malta during a therapy session.

In March, MSF had discontinued its services in open and closed centres in Malta to protest over what it described as “appalling” conditions, and returned shortly after but with a significantly reduced operational scope.