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Appeal to turquoise green: The situation on Lesbos is “shocking”.
Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn joined the chorus of aid organizations, opposition parties and scientists calling on the federal government to accept those in need of protection from refugee camps on the Greek islands. “We must not ignore the blows of those seeking a shelter. Jesus was one of them ”, the cardinal wrote yesterday on International Migrants Day in the free newspaper“ Hoy ”.
Schönborn recalled that mayors, communities and parishes had declared their willingness to host families. “The images we receive from the islands every day are shocking, and the situation is particularly stressful for children.” More recently, the Bishop of Innsbruck, Hermann Glettler, also had the conditions at the Kara Tepe camp there after a local inspection on Lesbos as “catastrophic.”
Help from the federal states
On the occasion of International Migrants Day, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the research network and politicians of the SPÖ and Neos have called on the turquoise green government to welcome the in need of protection from Lesbos. While the Greens would be open to accepting refugees, the ÖVP is constantly opposed.
The nine Austrian federal states support the care of refugees in Greece with 1.5 million euros. Most of the money goes to aid organizations such as the Red Cross, Caritas, Diakonie or the maritime workers association. There are currently around 120,000 refugees in mainland Greece and on islands in the Aegean Sea, and 7,000 in the Kara Tepe emergency camp in Lesbos (APA)
(“Die Presse”, print edition, December 19, 2020)
