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SPD increases pressure on Seehofer to accept refugees from Moria
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Refugee admission: “There has to be more”
After the meeting of the EU Economy and Finance ministers, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz spoke in favor of accepting more refugees. He sees the development in Moria as an “indication of what has not been successful in European refugee policy.”
The SPD remains dissatisfied with Interior Minister Seehofer’s course on the situation in Moria. Party leader Esken said Germany should receive a “high four-digit” number of refugees from the former Greek camp.
reThe SPD is increasing pressure on Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) to take in more refugees from the burning Moria camp on Lesbos. SPD leader Saskia Esken demanded from ZDF on Sunday that Germany should take in several thousand refugees without waiting for an agreement within the EU. However, she did not give a specific number. So far, Seehofer has only announced the admission of 150 children and youth.
Esken said on the “Berlin direkt” program that Germany should receive a “high four-digit” number of refugees from the ancient Greek camp. He added that by that he meant “significantly more” than 1,000 refugees. Germany must “move forward” to host refugees, especially in view of the current German Presidency of the EU Council.
The president of the SPD demanded that this Monday the government coalition take a decision on the contingent of refugees from Moria to be admitted.
According to information from the news portal “The Pioneer”, the SPD wants to pass a resolution on the situation in Lesbos at its board meeting on Monday. The admission of 400 unaccompanied minors, 150 of them in Germany, which has been planned by several EU states so far, is described as “completely inappropriate”. This could be “just a small first step”, is quoted from the draft resolution.
The SPD executive committee wants to ask Seehofer to respond to the will of many states and federal municipalities to accept refugees from Moria. “We hope that the Federal Minister of the Interior will finally assume this will in a constructive way,” says “El Pionero” in the draft resolution.
Lindner proposes immigration summit
The leader of the FDP, Christian Lindner, proposed a summit on migration of the federal, state and local governments. This should determine what capacities are available for the reception of refugees, Lindner told the “Passauer Neue Presse” (Monday edition). He also criticized Seehofer and accused him of inaction. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) should “take over the refugee issue when her interior minister has tired of the post.”
However, like Seehofer, Lindner spoke out against Germans acting alone in accepting refugees and called for a European solution. Germany’s individual effort in the 2015 refugee crisis “did not make Europe stronger.” What is needed is “a European management of migration that combines humanitarian responsibility with access control,” emphasized the president of the FDP.
The completely overcrowded former Moria camp, in which many refugees had lived in inhumane conditions, some of them for years, was almost completely destroyed by the fires of Tuesday and Wednesday. The fire left some 11,500 people homeless, including about 4,000 children.
