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Merkel and Seehofer for the admission of 1,500 parents and children: Kurz struggles with advancement
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Merkel and Seehofer plan to host around 1,500 refugees
More than 12,000 people have been made homeless by the fire in the Greek refugee camp of Moria. Therefore, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer want to host another 1,500 refugees.
Greens, leftists, the SPD want Germany to not only accept unaccompanied migrant minors from Lesbos. Now there is a proposal on the table. The leader of the Brinkhaus trade union faction is skeptical, as is neighboring Austria.
yesChancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) want to welcome some 1,500 more immigrants from the Greek islands to Germany. As the German Press Agency learned from national politicians on Tuesday, there are around 400 families with children who have already been recognized in Greece as in need of protection. Only a few of them last lived in the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, which caught fire last week.
“The Union’s parliamentary group will deal with a proposal tonight,” a spokesman for the Federal Interior Ministry said on request. According to information from dpa, the proposal has already been discussed with the Greek government. Talks about admitting refugees from the Greek islands were said in SPD circles to be in the coalition as they had been for days.
The leader of the trade union faction Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) expressed skepticism about the proposal to host 1,500 more refugees from the Greek islands in Germany. The signal should not be “if a refugee camp is on fire now, everyone will come to Europe,” Brinkhaus said Tuesday in an interview with “Spiegel.” No plan should be put in place that would lead to another influx of refugees.
He doesn’t like “the way the discussion is conducted,” Brinkhaus said. “Germany is the country that has welcomed the most migrants in Europe since the beginning of the refugee crisis.” It is denied, “that we are repeatedly reproached that we are not humanitarian” – there is hardly a country that is “more humanitarian than us”.
It is not yet clear whether the SPD will accept the new proposal. Lars Castellucci, spokesman for immigration policy for the parliamentary group, was open to WELT. “It is good that the Union is finally moving under our pressure. In an immediate emergency, quick action is required. Our position remains that we must help as the states and municipalities indicate that they are ready, ”said Castellucci. He called for the establishment of European asylum centers and a common distribution mechanism. To this end, the EU Commission must finally present its proposals.
SPD President Saskia Esken had asked Germany to host several thousand refugees from Greece in addition to offers of aid that had already been made. Greek authorities assume that the Moria refugee camp, which had been desperately overcrowded for years, was set on fire by migrants last week. The situation there had previously escalated after several asylum seekers tested positive for the coronavirus.
Seehofer announced on Friday that Germany will accept 100 to 150 young people out of a total of 400 unaccompanied minors who will be taken from Greece to other European countries. He also emphasized that in a second step they would then talk to Athens about accepting families with children. The Federal Ministry of the Interior wants to send a delegation to Lesbos to see who needs more protection. The goal is to use “objective criteria” in the selection, “so that there are no uncontrollable consequences,” the ministry said.
The Greek authorities, apart from the 400 unaccompanied minors, have not yet officially requested the admission of the people who have now become homeless in other EU countries. Rather, they began setting up a tent camp on Lesbos, in which migrants should first come to live. However, many of them hesitate to move into a tent there.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday according to “Bild” that he did not want to follow the German path. “I also assume that many European countries will not follow this path, hosting large numbers of refugees from Greece. Here in Austria we have hosted a very, very large number of refugees in recent years, ”Kurz said.
