[ad_1]
This was announced by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer at a joint press conference with EU Migration Commissioner Margaritis Schinas on Friday. That Austria is not among them is “surprising,” Seehofer said.
“Our contacts with the member states of the European Union have resulted in ten European member states participating with us in the aid, that is, in the resettlement of unaccompanied minors,” said Seehofer. Germany currently holds the presidency of the EU. But one is still in talks with other countries, Seehofer explained.
In view of the Greens’ involvement in the government, it was “surprising” that Austria had not yet committed, the CSU politician emphasized. In Austria, the VP strictly rejects the admission of refugees from Moria. The coalition’s smaller partner, the Greens, as well as the opposition parties SP and NEOS, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and numerous aid organizations have spoken in favor.
See image gallery
Photo gallery: Fire disaster in a refugee camp: the extent of the destruction
Image: (AFP)
A large part of the people, 100 to 150 each, will be taken in by Germany and France, Seehofer explained. But Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Portugal have also agreed to participate in the relocation, according to the dpa news agency. Italy also supports the Franco-German initiative, as Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said according to the ANSA news agency. The head of government left open if Italy wanted to help specifically with the reception of migrants. “In the future, however, we have to prevent something like this from happening again. We also suffer, our reception centers are overcrowded,” he warned.
In Germany, the arrival of young people is scheduled for the end of the month at the latest. An exact number can only be given once the talks with the other EU countries have been concluded. “The 400 minors are a first step and this first step will be followed by another,” Seehofer explained. I wanted to focus on families with children.
Camp Moria was almost completely destroyed by numerous fires Wednesday night. Instead of the 3,000 expected migrants, nearly 13,000 people were accommodated there. Some of the residents are said to have started fires after quarantine for people in the camp was ordered due to corona infections. The “no solution” in the negotiations for a common European asylum policy has led to the current catastrophic situation on Lesbos, Seehofer stressed. He reported that on Thursday Greece sent suggestions on how Germany could help with housing and caring for the homeless on the ground.
In Lesbos itself, however, the Greek government reinforced the police force. As Greek television showed, several buses with additional riot police and two water cannons aboard a ferry arrived in the island’s capital, Mytilini, on Friday morning. After the fire, the island fell into chaos. More than 12,000 migrants spent the third night in a row outdoors. Some continued to set fire to the remaining parts of the camp and the surrounding fields.
The reinforcement of police units is also targeting increasingly angry islanders. Many, including almost all mayors, do not want any more migrants on the island after the Moria fire. “Everyone has to go. There are no more camps on Lesbos,” the governor of the Nordgis region, Kostas Moutzouris, said on television. Especially since at least 35 refugees have tested positive for the coronavirus and islanders fear an uncontrolled outbreak of the virus, there is fear.
Neighboring residents repeatedly block access roads to places where the government plans to set up temporary camps to temporarily house the homeless. “We will not let that happen, no matter the cost,” the angry locals said. Most of the islanders are tired and disappointed with the EU. It was said that no one could support so many migrants living on an island for so long.
The European Commission vice president in charge of migration, Margaritis Schinas, said on Friday: “Moria no longer exists.” With the help of the European Union, a new and more modern facility will be created where asylum procedures can be carried out more quickly. I wanted to propose this to the Greek head of government. Schinas also confirmed that on September 30 the EU Commission will present new proposals for the reform of the EU migration and asylum policy that had been blocked for years.
Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler encouraged advocates of a “more humane asylum policy”, also the motto of many protests in numerous European cities. Civil society now has to pressure governments for a “total evacuation” of the 13,000 people who have been made homeless and to prevent rebuilding of the “slum camp,” Ziegler said in an APA interview. Austria in particular has a “living democracy” and “in a democracy there is no powerlessness,” declared the vice president of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council and former UN special rapporteur on the right to food. After the Lesbos disaster, the situation must now “radically change”. The well-known critic of globalization knows Moria well and, after visiting the site earlier this year, published a book about the refugee camp, which he described as “Europe’s Shame”, also the title of the book. A reconstruction of the “terrible field”, as is already being discussed, should be avoided, demanded Ziegler. It also needs “very massive humanitarian action” to care for those made homeless by the fire. In the end, the “total evacuation” of all refugees in all camps from the Greek islands to the EU countries must be maintained.
