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Moria refugee camp in Greece is on fire - and is setting Europe's asylum policy up in flames

2020-09-10T07:19:46.861Z


After the night of fire in the Greek refugee camp Moria near Lesbos, the debate about the missing European line has flared up again. The time for a solution has come.


After the night of fire in the Greek refugee camp Moria near Lesbos, the debate about the missing European line has flared up again.

The time for a solution has come.

  • Moria

    , Greece:

    Europe's

    largest

    refugee camp

    goes up

    in flames on

    the island of Lesbos

    .

  • It shows the continent a problem displaced by Corona *: the solution to the refugee question.

  • For years the states have not been able to agree on a unified line.

Moira / Lesbos - Children wander around between clouds of smoke in the red firelight.

Women cry, young men scream.

The fire inferno in Greece's largest

refugee camp, Moria,

on Wednesday night caused a panic among residents.

Around 12,700 people live in the camp on the

island of Lesbos

, which is actually only designed for 2,800 people.

Many have wanted to leave here for a long time.

But no country has wanted to accept them so far.

That night they just want to get away from the burning containers and tents, from exploding gas bottles.

Thousands of them flee on hills or towards the island's capital.

Nobody dies in the flames and the fires are now under control.

It is still unclear who laid them, migrants or annoyed islanders.

On the other hand

, it

is clear:

Moria

no longer exists.

The camp has been destroyed and the question is what should happen to the refugees now.

Some of the flames have been extinguished, politically the

issue of asylum has reignited

.

Moria: Greens are calling on Bavaria to take in 500 migrants

For months it had become quiet about the

refugee issue

.

The

coronavirus

* dominated.

Curiously, it may also have been the virus that has now broken the barrel.

The warehouse has been under quarantine since last week after the first corona case.

It was announced on Tuesday that the number of infected people was 35.

Many residents reportedly wanted to leave the camp out of fear - others would not go into

quarantine

.

+

New fires are burning in the Moria refugee camp, after several fires had previously almost completely destroyed the camp.

© Socrates Baltagiannis / dpa

On Wednesday, top politicians spoke up every minute.

Foreign Minister

Heiko Maas (SPD)

tweeted of a "humanitarian catastrophe" and urged

the EU to

provide rapid

aid to Greece

.

Green leader

Annalena Baerbock

called for an evacuation of all Greek camps.

Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said that one could “not look away”.

Armin Laschet (CDU)

wants to take in up to 1000 Moria refugees in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the evening, Development Minister said

Gerd Müller (CSU)

in the

ARD

, Germany should put a "sign of humanity" and record 2,000 migrants.

The

Free State of Bavaria

will also have to explain itself.

Bavaria's Greens demanded the immediate admission of 500 people on Wednesday.

"Bavaria can and must help," said state chief Eva Lettenbauer.

"In the face of this catastrophe, the state government cannot look any further."

Does Bavaria accept refugees from Moria?

Markus Söder speaks on Twitter

Prime Minister

Markus Söder (CSU)

wants to wait and see which line the federal government takes.

"The terrible events in

Moria

leave no one indifferent and require rapid help and solidarity," he tweeted.

“All of Europe and Germany must act and help.

Should the federal government decide to take in people, Bavaria will of course take part. "

The terrible events in Moria leave no one indifferent and require rapid help and solidarity.

All of Europe and Germany must act and help.

Should the federal government decide to take in people, Bavaria will of course take part.

- Markus Söder (@Markus_Soeder) September 9, 2020

The pressure on Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has grown overnight.

Aid organizations have long accused him of blocking the distribution of refugees.

And the

SPD is

demanding

speed

from

Angela Merkel

.

"We urge the Chancellor to find a quick solution," said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich in Berlin.

The German government has

promised

Greece

support.

Seehofer is in intensive talks with the Greek government to define what help is needed, said his spokesman in Berlin.

As soon as this is established, help will be given quickly and easily.

Seehofer's spokesman said that there was no need to change the principle of admission in Germany from the minister's point of view, when it came

to demands from municipalities and federal states

willing to accept

them to allow them to

bring

refugees

into the country on their own.

Seehofer

had stopped its own state admission programs for Berlin and Thuringia in July.

This would jeopardize the negotiations for a European asylum policy.

For

years

, the

EU states

have been unable to agree

on a comprehensive

reform of their asylum and migration policies

.

The Dublin rules, in particular, are controversial, according to which the EU state that is responsible for an asylum application is usually the one that the person seeking protection enters first.

These are primarily Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Spain.

They demand that those seeking protection be distributed to all EU countries.

Other countries, such as Austria, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, are preventing this and are instead calling for stronger border protection.

Moria refugee camp is on fire: According to "Pro Asyl", this is not an isolated case

The

EU is

also

dependent on

Turkey

, with which a refugee pact has existed since 2016.

In practice, it is ultimately President Erdogan who determines how many migrants make it from Turkey to Greece and thus

to the EU

.

But according to the pact, Greece would also have to send rejected asylum seekers back to Turkey - which rarely happens.

Lesbos shows "how urgent a European answer is," said Mathias Middelberg, domestic policy spokesman for the Union group.

The EU-Turkey agreement must be implemented and the

EU asylum system reformed

.

Germany going it alone is not helpful, "because it could give the impression that Germany would take in the refugees on its own."

Moria is the largest refugee camp in the EU

, but not an isolated case.

The conditions are also desolate in smaller camps, said Meral Zeller from “Pro Asyl”.

A corona case was also known in camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina in August and the hygiene recommendations * were not to be followed.

The

conditions in Malta are

just as bad

, where many young people seeking protection have to live in a confined space.

According to the infomigrants.net portal, around 1200 refugees live on the streets of Calais and Dunkirk, France.

According to the European Asylum Support Office, at the end of 2019 there were around 900,000 people in Europe waiting for a response to their asylum application.

According to Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis, the residents of Moria will initially be accommodated

on ships and in tents

.

There was still no trace of the 35 corona infected on Wednesday.

The authorities are afraid that they will spread the virus on the island of 90,000.

* Merkur.de is an offer from the Ippen Digital Network

List of rubric lists: © Socrates Baltagiannis / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-09-10

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