As Europe started undoing its lockdown, an astounding mile-long line for food formed in Geneva, Switzerland, last Saturday.
Comprised of over 3,000 people living in one of the world’s richest cities, the line to collect $25 worth of food at an ice hockey stadium started forming at 2 a.m. last Saturday, according to the New York Times.
The majority of the people worked in hotels or as cleaners in homes and the city’s hotel industry which has been shuttered since the pandemic started. Most of them are undocumented immigrants and thus were unable to collect government benefits.
“If you wanted to pictogram Geneva, what would you put?” said Laura Cotton, a Swiss-British hospital decorator who volunteers at the stadium, to the Times. “Money, money, money. And, OK — cheese and chocolate. But COVID-19 has showed the flip-side.”