Thomas Peter / Reuters

Afghan refugee Maiwand smokes a cigarette as he sits under an umbrella in front of Brandenburg Gate during a hunger strike in Berlin on Oct. 25.

Approximately 20 refugees went on a hunger strike in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, after traveling over 370 miles across Germany as part of a larger group of asylum seekers, according to Reuters. The refugees demanded that deportation and restrictions on their movements, among other things, end.

Johannes Eisele / AFP - Getty Images

Refugees and activists of "Refugee Tent Action" shelter under an umbrella while being on a hunger strike in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 25. The previous day police officers took down a tent set up by the protesters. The group stages a protest for better rights for asylum seekers that began in September with a march from Wuerzburg, southern Germany to Berlin.

Thomas Peter / Reuters

An Iranian refugee sleeps in front of Brandenburg Gate during a hunger strike in Berlin Oct. 25. Some 20 refugees, mainly from Iran and Afghanistan, went on hunger strike on Oct. 24 demanding an end to deportations, obligatory camp accommodation to be abolished and restrictions on their movements be lifted, the refugees said. They are part of a larger group of asylum seekers who have marched some 372 miles from the southern town of Wuerzburg to the German capital.

Previously on PhotoBlog: Refugees march across Germany to demand 'freedom and respect'

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

Sign up for the NBC News Photos Newsletter

Tubagus / EPA

Indonesian rescuers help a young survivor to get back on dry land at Merak seaport, Banten Province, Indonesia, Aug. 31. A boat carrying an estimated 150 migrants en route to Australia sank off Indonesia's Java island on Wednesday.

Australian rescuers called off their search for survivors on Friday after a boat reportedly carrying about 150 asylum-seekers sank off Java, Indonesia. The wooden fishing boat went down on Wednesday as it headed for a remote Australian island. 

In a statement, the Australian government said that 55 survivors had been recovered on Thursday, along with one body. An Australian navy ship and several merchant vessels were involved in the search.

Indonesian officials said that they would continue with their own search and rescue operation, according to the BBC.

Kris Aria / AFP - Getty Images

A survivor is carried off an Indonesian rescue boat at Merak seaport on Aug. 31.

The European Pressphoto Agency reported that the survivors, most of whom were Afghans, were being taken to Merak, a port on the western tip of Java. Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, said that they would be handed over to immigration authorities there.

Since 2001, almost 1,000 people have died at sea while attempting to reach Australia on overcrowded and often unseaworthy refugee boats from Indonesia, according to figures compiled by Reuters.

AP

Survivors lie on the deck of a rescue boat upon arrival at a port in Merak on Aug. 31.

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

•Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

Juni Kriswanto / AFP - Getty Images

A police officer carries a young survivor to an immigration office in Watulimo, Indonesia, on Dec. 18, 2011. More than 200 people were feared dead after a heavily overloaded boat packed mostly with Afghan and Iranian asylum-seekers sank off Indonesia en route to Australia.

Reuters reports:

The crew and captain of an Indonesian boat packed with illegal immigrants grabbed life vests and swam away as it sank during a heavy storm, leaving more than 200 passengers missing, Australian media reported on Monday.

Surviving asylum seekers said terrified passengers on the boat that was heading for Australia were left to drown as it broke apart in stormy seas about 55 miles off the coast of Java, Indonesia.

"The captain and six crew took the life vests and started swimming away," Pakistani Saed Mohammad Zia, 18, told the Daily Telegraph.

Juni Kriswanto / AFP - Getty Images

Members of a search and rescue team continue to look for victims of the sinking in Watulimo on Dec. 19, 2011.

"They were all from Indonesia. We lost sight of them in the big waves and we never saw them again. We don't know if they were rescued."

The number of survivors, missing and those feared dead is still not clear, authorities said of the latest of such disasters in recent years for immigrants travelling via Indonesia in search of a better life in Australia.

Many of the passengers on the wooden vessel, which sank on Saturday, are believed to be economic migrants from countries including Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those that survived suffered severe dehydration and exhaustion after struggling to stay afloat in the rough seas, some clinging to wreckage for five hours.

"We were just praying to God that someone would help us. We thought it was the last of our life story," said Esmat Adine, 24, from Afghanistan.

"People were dying in front of us. The bodies were lying in front of us in the water, women and children mostly," he told the Daily Telegraph. Read the full story.

Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images

An asylum seeker who survived crys during an interviewe in Blitar, East Java, on Dec. 19, 2011.

Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images

A survivor receiving treatment on Dec. 19, 2011 in Blitar, East Java. The tragedy is expected to further inflame the debate in Australia as how best to handle the influx of asylum seekers.

SYDNEY — Asylum seekers and other detainees at an Australian immigration center set fire to several buildings, climbed onto rooftops and hurled tiles at officials who were scrambling on Thursday to bring the chaotic protest to an end.

Rick Rycroft / AP

Fellow detainees grab onto a man, second left, and remove a wire he had around his neck that is tied to a vent, after he threatened to jump from a rooftop at the Villawood Detention Center in Sydney, Australia on April 21.

Brami Jegan / EPA

Burning buildings at the Villawood Detention Centre, set alight during a protest by up to 100 immigration detainees in the early hours of the morning. The riot began on 20 April, when asylum seekers took to a building's roof reportedly in protest to the department denying their visa applications.

Tim Wimborne / Reuters

Detainees hold a protest sign atop a building at Villawood detention centre on April 21. Angry asylum-seekers torched an immigration detention centre in Sydney on Thursday, burning part of it to the ground after Australian authorities denied some of their requests for refuge, local media reported.

Up to 100 people being held at Sydney's Villawood Detention Center were involved in the riots, which began Wednesday night when two detainees climbed onto a roof, immigration officials said.

Protesters set an oxygen cylinder alight, which led to an explosion, and nine buildings — including a medical center and dining hall — were gutted by fire. Firefighters brought the blaze under control early Thursday and no one was injured. Continue reading.