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Angela Merkel says she hopes other EU member states will also be involved in hosting refugee children.
After the great fire in the Greek refugee camp of Moria, Germany and France want to take in more minor immigrants, if possible together with other EU countries. She asked Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to take office, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday during a discussion with European People’s Party (EPP) President Donald Tusk in Berlin.
Merkel did not give a specific number of how many people Germany will host. Meanwhile, Greece had already transferred 400 minors who are not accompanied by their parents from the island of Lesbos to the port city of Thessaloniki on Thursday.
Merkel said she hoped other EU member states would also be involved in accepting the minor refugees. She also spoke with Mitsotakis that immediate help would be provided to ensure new and better housing for those affected by the fire. “It cannot stay like that, and Germany will participate,” said the chancellor.
12,000 instead of 3,000 people
The Moria camp was almost completely destroyed in several simultaneous fires Wednesday night. Instead of the planned 3,000 migrants, more than 12,000 people stayed there. The Greek government rejected the rapid relocation of more refugees and identified the arson as the trigger.
France will participate in the resettlement of minors from the largely burned camp in coordination with Germany, President Emmanuel Macron said. Mitsotakis thanked France and Germany for their willingness to host refugee children. “We will do our best to address this crisis in a humane way,” Mitsotakis said in Ajaccio, Corsica, after an informal EU-South summit.
You have to look reality in the eye, says Mitsotakis. In Greece, as in other southern countries, an unbearable burden is at stake. Europe must now move from expressions of solidarity to real solidarity, said the Greek Prime Minister.
“Germany, France – and I hope that many other countries that can join this initiative show solidarity – we live up to our responsibility by offering to care for unaccompanied minors,” Macron said. The stalemate on migration issues has been going on for too long, according to Macron.
Tusk said in Berlin that a tragedy was taking place in Moria that could unfold in the coming weeks. It is also important to watch out for corona infections among refugees. Events on the pitch are likely to sway the mood in Europe and make the right wing parties play again. And Moria also shows that Europe has by no means solved the problems of migration in the last five years.
Unaccompanied children already admitted
Germany has already taken in more than 460 unaccompanied children, sick children and their families from refugee camps on the islands. More recordings of sick children are already in preparation. The admission of unaccompanied minors now promised between Merkel and Macron, who have now been brought to the mainland by Greek authorities, should occur regardless of this, according to information from dpa.
The Vice Minister of Migration, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, initially ruled out that adult migrants could also leave the island. On the Skai news channel he said: “If you think you can travel to the mainland and then to Germany, you must forget it.”
The question of whether Germany could, if necessary, take in more immigrants from the Greek islands on its own and without the involvement of other EU countries has been a dispute in Berlin since Wednesday. The German federal government had stressed that it should rely on local aid and coordinate with Greece and its EU partners. There were also voices from the Union calling for more recordings, for example from mainland Greece to alleviate the situation. German Development Minister Gerd Müller demanded that Germany go ahead and accept 2,000 immigrants.
“The fire was started by people who applied for asylum, in response to the quarantine (in Moria) due to the coronavirus,” Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Thursday. These are people who “do not respect their host country”. However, with such actions, these people torpedoed any solution. “We will tell you clearly: you will not leave the island because of the fire. You can forget that.” The arsonists only made thousands of people, including families, homeless, criticized Petsas. Greek television (ERT) again showed images of people lying on the side of the road waiting for help on Thursday. Some people stayed in a cemetery.
(THAN)
