The first group of refugees from the burnt-down Moria camp have arrived in Germany from Greece. The resettlement flight primarily contained unaccompanied minors, and seriously ill children and their families.

First refugees arrive from burnt-down Moria camp

139 refugees touched down in Hannover on Wednesday, in what Alternate Greek Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos described as the first resettlement flight after the country’s largest refugee camp burned down earlier this month. According to the German Interior Ministry, 51 of the arrivals are unaccompanied minors from the Moria camp. The rest are children with serious health conditions, and their immediate families - a total of 88 people. 

The migrants are coming to Germany thanks to two independent initiatives. In the immediate aftermath of the Moria fire, the German government agreed to take in up to 150 unaccompanied minors, with a further 250 being distributed among 10 other European countries. A further 1.553 family members are due to follow in the coming months. 

Additionally, Germany had already pledged to take in the 17 sick children and their families, under a previous commitment to accept more than 240 children from Greece who are in urgent need of medical treatment. This forms part of a Europe-wide relief effort.

According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 713 people have been flown to Germany from Greece in 2020, including 104 unaccompanied minors and 142 children with health problems. The latest arrivals will be distributed among several federal states, including Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein. Family ties and special medical needs will also be taken into account. 

Angela Merkel: This is not a long-term solution

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that, while taking in children from the razed camp was a necessary act of compassion, it was not a viable solution in the long term. “We saw terrible pictures in recent days,” she said. “I believe it was right, the way Germany acted there and provided humanitarian help, even though I know that it’s not a sustainable solution to the problem.” 

She went on to say that she was “grateful” for the European Commission’s recent proposal to take a pan-European approach to tackling the problem. “If we continue not to have a common basis among the member states of the European Union on the question of migration, then that will be a heavy burden for Europe’s ability to act,” she said.