Fire in Moria: 10 German mayors want to take in refugees



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reAfter the devastating fire in the Greek refugee camp of Moria, Germany and France want to take in minor immigrants, if possible together with other EU countries. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis requested inauguration in a phone call, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said Thursday during a discussion with European People’s Party Chairman Donald Tusk at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, affiliated with the CDU, in Berlin. . Merkel did not give a specific number of how many people Germany will host.

She hoped that other EU member states would also be involved in accepting the minor refugees, Merkel said. She also spoke with Mitsotakis that immediate help would be provided to ensure new and better housing for those affected by the fire. “It cannot stay like this and Germany will participate,” said the chancellor.

Merkel said: “More steps must be taken.” Germany has taken responsibility for the migrants. “But we cannot be satisfied with a European migration policy. Basically, today there is no such thing. And if it stays that way, it will be a drag on Europe ”, criticized the foreign minister. She will use the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, which runs until the end of the year, to advance here.

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Earlier there was talk of 400 underage refugees who should be admitted. According to information from the German Press Agency in Berlin, the number 400 applies to all participating countries; It has not yet been determined how many of them Germany will take, he said.

Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis thanked Germany and France. “We will do our best to address this crisis in a humane way,” Mitsotakis said Thursday night in Ajaccio, Corsica, after an informal EU-South summit.

Mayors want to host refugees

In a joint letter to Merkel and the federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), the city leaders of ten large German municipalities have declared their willingness to accept refugees from the camp. In the letter they appeal to Merkel and Seehofer to pave the way for this, as the Germany publishing network (RND) reported on Thursday night.

The letter was signed by the mayors of Bielefeld, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Gießen, Göttingen, Hannover, Cologne, Krefeld, Oldenburg and Potsdam. City leaders affirmed their willingness to “make a humanitarian contribution to human accommodation for those seeking protection in Europe”: “We are ready to welcome people from Moria in order to defuse the humanitarian catastrophe.”

Arson was probably the cause of the disaster.

The Greek government had previously identified arson as the cause of the disaster. The Vice Minister of Migration, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, also ruled out on Thursday that adult migrants could also leave the island. On the Skai news channel, he said: “If you think you can travel to the mainland and then to Germany, you must forget it.”

Meanwhile, the UN Refugee Aid provided emergency aid of 250,000 euros. Residents of the camp needed means of transport, emergency accommodation and basic relief supplies and needed to be protected from the spread of the corona virus, the organization said.

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Thousands of people queued for food on Lesbos on Thursday

Meanwhile, the Greek government has increased the police force on the island of Lesbos. 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, conditions are chaotic on the island. More than 12,000 migrants spent the third night in a row outdoors. Some continued to burn the remaining parts of the camp and surrounding fields and attacked the police.

The acceptance of immigrants from Moria in Germany is controversial

After the fire in the Greek refugee camp of Moria, the situation in Lesbos remains desperate. Thousands of people are homeless. While many politicians are demanding admission to Germany, others warn that they should not go it alone and push for a European solution.

The reinforcement of police units is also targeting increasingly angry islanders. Many, including almost all mayors, no longer want migrants on the island after the Moria fire. “Everyone has to go. No more camping on Lesbos, ”the governor of the North Aegean region, Kostas Moutzouris, said on television. There is fear, especially since at least 35 migrants have tested positive for the corona virus and islanders fear an uncontrolled outbreak of the virus.

Local residents continue to block access roads to places where the government plans to establish temporary camps to temporarily house the homeless. “We will not let that happen, whatever it takes,” they told angry lesbian reporters. Most of the islanders are tired and disappointed with the EU. No one could bear that so many immigrants lived on an island for so long, he said.

In the fires on Wednesday night, the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos was almost completely destroyed. Instead of the planned 3,000 migrants, more than 12,000 people stayed there.

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