‘Minute of Silence’ for refugees now topping iTunes charts

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There’s a new song that is topping the iTunes chart in Austria - but it doesn’t have any blended melodies or catchy pop hooks. It is, instead, a song that is simply a minute of unbroken silence.

Austrian artist, Raoul Haspel, recorded his unique track called Schweigeminute (Minute’s Silence) as a way to protest against his country’s handling of refugees. It was released last week on Friday and has quickly taken over radio stations across Austria.

More than 2,000 refugees in Traiskirchen, Austria’s main refugee camp, have been sleeping outdoors for weeks, Reuters reports.

According to The Independent, Traiskirchen has been “heavily criticized” by the UN refugee agency for its “intolerable, dangerous and inhumane” conditions.

“We have a huge humanitarian problem, babies have been born outside in a city with some of the best healthcare in the world,” Haspel told Reuters.

“I chose silence because everybody has such a strong opinion on the situation, and the debate just gets louder and louder each time, arguments and protests are not being heard anymore, people are becoming fed up and not paying attention as before,” he said.

Austria, like many other countries in Europe, is struggling to cope with the influx of refugees from war-torn countries like Syria and Afghanistan.

For example, in just the first few months in 2015, the country received more than 10,000 requests for asylum and officials expect the number to go up to 80,000 by the end of the year, The Verge reports.

Haspel plans to use all of the proceeds from his track to help the refugees in Traiskirchen.

“Imagine, a few people in tiny little Austria press a button on their cellphone to create attention for this problem, and days later half the world knows about it,” Haspel told The Verge. “Imagine the possibilities.”