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A man builds a tent on the edge of the burned-out Moria refugee camp
Photo: Socrates Baltagiannis / dpa
92 of 152 SPD MPs signed a letter calling on Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to take in more migrants from the burned down Greek camp Moria.
Germany's previous commitment to accept 150 minors is "not appropriate to the situation and shameful," says the letter that SPIEGEL and dpa have received.
The federal states have offered significantly more help than the federal government
From the point of view of the SPD MPs, the situation of the refugees was already "catastrophic" before the fire.
Now it is "an even more dramatic humanitarian catastrophe."
Since the federal states had already offered significantly more help in advance than the federal government, the letter continues "to urge that Germany immediately take in refugees of the size that the federal states have already given."
Rhineland-Palatinate had already offered 50 places, Berlin 300. Thuringia had already decided months ago to accept around 500 refugees, but failed due to resistance from the federal government.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior would have to give its approval.
The signatories welcomed the dispatch of the technical relief organization and commitments for humanitarian aid, but warned: "The establishment of temporary accommodation on site without evacuating the people in need to mainland Greece and the EU, however, harbors the great danger that precarious structures of misery emerge again. "
Moria was hopelessly overcrowded
The Moria camp was almost completely destroyed by fire on Wednesday night.
The Greek authorities believe that migrants started the fires.
Instead of the planned almost 3,000 migrants, more than 12,000 people were housed there.
Some of the migrants are said to have started fire after quarantine was ordered for the residents of the camp due to corona infections.
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bah / til / dpa
