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Norbert Röttgen calls for the immediate admission of thousands of migrants from Moria

2020-09-12T06:49:59.340Z


"Our Christian-democratic demands on politics": Norbert Röttgen wants to help the migrants. The situation on Lesbos remains dire. The Greek government is pushing the construction of a temporary camp.


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A man sits with a child in front of an accommodation in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos

Photo: picture alliance / DPA

Thousands of men, women and children had to spend the fourth night outdoors on Lesbos.

Meanwhile, the Greek government is pushing the construction and expansion of a temporary camp for the migrants who have lived in Moria.

The Moria camp was almost completely destroyed in several simultaneous fires on Wednesday night.

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.

"Everyone has to go there. This is the only way we will be able to provide them properly," said Greek Deputy Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos on the Athens news channel Skai.

The head of the branch of the aid organization Doctors of the World, Dimitris Patestos, agreed: "The makeshift camp must function as quickly as possible," he told the dpa news agency.

"We want to go to Germany - not to the camp"

Numerous migrants told reporters on the spot that they did not want to go to the makeshift camp and saw the situation as an opportunity to enforce their departure.

"We want freedom. We want to go to Germany - not to the camp," many say.

The question of which EU member state will accept how many people and when is still being discussed intensively.

The applicant for the CDU chairmanship, Norbert Röttgen, reiterates his demand that Germany should quickly accept 5000 people.

"5000 fewer people would relieve the situation in Greece considerably. It is our Christian-democratic claim to politics that we help now," said the foreign policy expert and former Federal Environment Minister of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".

If possible, other European countries should help with the distribution of the 5000 refugees.

The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced that Bavaria would take part in the reception of migrants.

In an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" he called it, like Röttgen, a "Christian duty" to help.

"A big European solution would be best. But it is good that Germany and France are leading the way. Others should follow."

Claudia Roth attacks Horst Seehofer

His party friend, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, has meanwhile come under fire.

He said on Friday that Germany had taken in a total of 1.73 million asylum seekers since 2015.

Currently, 300 to 400 people come into the country every working day.

"We are approaching the highs of the past again."

According to Seehofer, the federal government is nevertheless working to quickly take in more migrants from Moria.

"Personally, it is very important to me that we find a quick solution for families with children," he said on Friday evening.

In the morning Seehofer announced that ten European countries are taking part in the admission of 400 unaccompanied minors.

A large part - 100 to 150 each - will be taken in by Germany and France.

That is not enough for Green Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth.

"Horst Seehofer's announcement that only between 100 and 150 minors from Moria will be admitted to Germany is a total failure of the interior minister," she told the "Augsburger Allgemeine".

The commitment corresponds to only a fraction of the offers to accept almost 180 municipalities and several federal states.

"With his rejection Seehofer makes himself jointly responsible for the inhuman suffering on Europe's doorstep," said Roth.

Municipalities report numerous free places to take in migrants

According to the Beamtenbund dbb, the cities and municipalities in Germany have numerous free places in reception facilities for migrants.

"In many cities there are free places because refugees from 2015 are now living in regular apartments or are no longer in Germany," said dbb chairman Ulrich Silberbach of the dpa news agency.

According to a report by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", there were around 25,000 free places in the springtime in the initial reception facilities of the federal states where refugees apply for asylum, according to a broadcast from the state, interior and social ministries.

The federal states could also provide at least 40,000 additional places.

The CDU foreign politician Jürgen Hardt told the "Passauer Neue Presse": "We do not want to send the wrong signal that the dangerous route across the Mediterranean automatically leads to Germany in the end."

Perhaps that could be accepted in individual cases.

"But there must be no pull, and 2015 must not be repeated."

Such a suction effect could not be mastered by a district administrator or mayor, which is why responsibility lies with the federal government.

more on the subject

Icon: Spiegel PlusIcon: Spiegel Plus Refugee camp on Lesbos: Never again Moria! THE SPIEGEL editorial by Katrin Elger

Meanwhile, voices calling for migrants to be relocated are also growing louder internationally.

UN General Secretary António Guterres wrote on Twitter that he had followed the "devastation".

"The solution is to take care of all the people affected, especially the most vulnerable, and start moving people to the mainland."

EU Interior and Refugee Commissioner Ylva Johansson has called on the EU member states to provide rapid aid and European solidarity.

She welcomed "every public representative at local, regional and national level who is working to make the solidarity that holds Europe together tangible and real", Johansson told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

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dop / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-12

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