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After the fire in the Moria refugee camp, the Minister of the Interior, Seehofer, initially only wants to take in 150 minor immigrants in Germany. For many, the announcement doesn’t go far enough: the coalition partner also asked for more commitment.
A large part of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag is calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to take in more immigrants from the burning Greek camp of Moria. Germany’s previous commitment to accept 150 minors “is not appropriate and shameful for the situation,” says the letter to Merkel, which has been received by the dpa news agency. 92 out of 152 SPD deputies signed it.
“We strongly advocate that Germany immediately take in refugees in the same order of magnitude that countries have already given,” the letter says. Several countries had agreed to accept refugees in recent weeks. Rhineland-Palatinate offered 50 places, Berlin 300. Thuringia had already decided months ago to accept about 500 refugees, but failed due to federal resistance. The Federal Ministry of the Interior should give its approval.
The signatories welcomed the dispatch of the technical relief organization and humanitarian aid commitments to Moria, but warned: “However, establishing temporary accommodation on site without evacuating people in need to mainland Greece and the EU represents a great danger that precarious structures of misery are being formed again “.
Left speaks of “low human rights”
The Bundestag had previously debated the situation on the Greek island of Lesbos at the request of the Left Party. The SPD asked the Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer (CSU), to abandon the resistance to the reception of refugees in the federal states and municipalities that are willing to do so. “Put your heart over the obstacle,” Ute Vogt, an insider inside the SPD, told Minister. She announced a “federal admission program” in which municipalities and states could participate voluntarily.
The leader of the left-wing parliamentary group, Dietmar Bartsch, criticized the admission of up to 150 minors as insufficient. Refugee camps like Moria are “the lowest point of our time in terms of human rights,” Bartsch said. Green MP Luise Amtsberg demanded that the refugees from the burned camp be distributed to other EU countries. “There is no alternative,” she said. “People need help immediately.” AfD MP Gottfried Curio categorically refused to bring refugees from Moria to Germany. This would be a “bottomless pit,” he said.
Seehofer wants a “quick solution for families with children”
According to Seehofer, the federal government is working to quickly take in more immigrants from Moria. “It is very important to me personally that we find a quick solution for families with children. Admitting the 400 unaccompanied minors is only the first step. The second step will come later,” said the CSU politician. Work is already underway on a joint letter from the German Council Presidency and the EU Commission to the EU member states.
No concrete figures are yet available on how many families with children there are currently on Lesbos, Seehofer said. In the morning he announced that ten European countries are participating in the reception of 400 unaccompanied minors. A large part, from 100 to 150 each, will be taken in by Germany and France. Seehofer also thanked the municipalities, which every day accept refugees throughout Germany. “This terrible fire should be a reminder to all of us, across Europe, that conditions really have to change substantially. We, as the federal government, will do everything we can to achieve this.”
The SPD wants “quick” talks in the coalition
The SPD leadership rejected Seehofer’s plans as inappropriate. Seehofer’s announcement that it was “unacceptable” and that it lagged “far behind what would be necessary”, reported party chairmen Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans. “We hope that Germany will do more.” They demanded an “unequivocal signal” to Greece that “Germany wants to evacuate a significant number of refugees from the camps.” Germany must make a clear offer to the Greek government. It is also necessary “that Germany, as the Presidency of the Council of the EU, encourages the other EU member states to participate in this admission program by the end of next week.”
“We will provoke a discussion in the coalition as soon as possible.” The SPD wanted to talk about immediate humanitarian aid on the ground, the admission of “a significant proportion” of people in need and the “end of the blockade of Operation Seebrücke”, that is, the admission of refugees by open communities . The subject of debate should also be how to finalize a reform of the European asylum and refugee policy.
MEPs speak out against reconstruction
The Moria camp was almost completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday night. Greek authorities believe that immigrants caused the fires. Instead of the nearly 3,000 expected migrants, more than 12,000 people stayed there. Some of the migrants are said to have started shooting after a quarantine was ordered for the camp’s residents due to corona infections.
In Brussels, more than 150 MEPs urgently warned against rebuilding the countryside and warned that other EU countries would accept all immigrants. “Rebuilding Moria is not a solution, nor is it a solution to create other camps with similar conditions,” read a letter to the responsible EU commissioners and Seehofer as a representative of the German presidency of the EU Council. For people in the destroyed countryside, sustainable solutions would have to be found and accepted by other EU countries, MEPs from various parliamentary groups write.
More than 60 of the 159 signatories to the charter belong to the Greens in the European Parliament. The letter was also signed by Social Democrats, Leftists, and some Christian Democrats. There were also three unaffiliated and one member of the right-wing group EKR.
Asselborn for the distribution of migrants
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn also spoke out against the rebuilding of Moria. “Leaving people in these conditions and trying to set up a new camp in the same place will not work,” he said in den daily topics. He believes that “riots are inevitable.”
Asselborn welcomed the speedy admission of 400 minors from Moria. However, after that, thousands more would have to be brought in from Lesbos. “There are still about 4,000 children and youth and 4,000 parents on Lesbos. I can’t imagine leaving them on the street or putting them in a tent and then waiting for a new camp to be built.”
For example, you might imagine that the EU could “rent or buy some cruise ships” and take them to a safe harbor, Asselborn said. There the refugees had “a bed and a guarantee that they would get something to eat.” Then European countries should check who can stay in Europe.
