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Chancellor Merkel and Interior Minister Seehofer apparently plan to host 1,500 selected refugees from Greece. The project has not yet been coordinated with the SPD or within the Union. UNHCR had previously called for action.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) agreed to host some 1,500 more immigrants from the Greek islands in Germany. These are families with children who have already been recognized as vulnerable in Greece. Apparently, the proposal has already been discussed with the Greek government, but not with the SPD or within the Union.
It remains to be seen whether the SPD will agree. SPD leader Saskia Esken on Sunday demanded that a large four-digit number of refugees be brought to Germany immediately. SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz gave the union an ultimatum on Monday that the ruling coalition would have to agree to accept more refugees from Moria within 48 hours. The SPD’s impression was “that this is the common will of the three ruling parties,” the politician said. Germany must do much more than is associated with the first step.
UNHCR calls for quick help from the EU
The Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos burned down on Wednesday. 12,000 people lost their homes. Switzerland and nine EU countries later agreed to accept 400 unaccompanied minors. Seehofer announced on Friday that Germany would provide shelter between 100 and 150 children and young people. He himself spoke of a “first step” and offered the possibility of further admission, especially for families with children.
In view of the devastating situation for the people of Lesbos, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) urged European countries to provide quick help. The current situation of migrants there is “a humanitarian emergency that requires rapid and immediate action by the European states together with Greece,” the representative of the UN organization in Germany, Frank Remus, told the newspapers of the Funke media group. .
“Conditions in Moria were scandalous and the countryside itself an embarrassment to Europe, incompatible with European values,” Remus said. But there are committed countries, especially Germany, that see the problem and want to help find solutions.
“Help Greece by all means”
The German Association of Cities also called on the federal government to make a “courageous decision”. “Many German cities are ready to immediately accept people from Moria. This is an acute emergency. Therefore, we must not hesitate,” said President Burkhard Jung of the dpa news agency. Regardless of the debate on the fair distribution of refugees within the EU, people need help now.
The candidate for the presidency of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, is skeptical about the search for a European solution for the distribution of refugees. Apart from Luxembourg and Germany, no other EU member state is currently ready to accept the people from Moria, he told the dpa news agency. “It makes no sense to enter a contest in Germany to determine how many migrants we should take in,” the politician said. Merz argued that Germany should help Greece by all means to accommodate the refugees there in a humane way.
Merkel for the EU camps on Lesbos
Chancellor Merkel sees him similarly to Merz. On Monday he made it clear that Germany cannot solve the European task of migration policy alone. It considers that targeting the large number of refugees is a “wrong approach”. On the contrary, it was open to the proposal to build a new camp under the leadership of the EU on Lesbos. She believes that this is a really important step in the Europeanization of immigration policy, Merkel said.
