German state considers bringing refugee children from Greece unilaterally
Several German state governments have said they would be prepared to take in refugee children from Greece. One state, Thuringia, has even suggested it would do so in the face of the refusal in Berlin….
At least one German state has said it was prepared to take in unaccompanied children from crowded refugee camps in Greece, in the face of refusal from the federal government in Berlin.
A spokesman for the Education and Youth Ministry in the eastern state of Thuringia told the DPA news agency on Monday that the state government was prepared to take in some of the children, even if the government in Berlin refused — though it would prefer a “coordinated aid operation directed by the federal interior ministry.”
The European Commission has already urged Germany and other EU member states to take some of the children. However, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has already rejected calls from across the political spectrum.
The governments of three German states — Thuringia, Berlin, and Lower Saxony — wrote a letter to Seehofer in early December, urging him to come up with a solution to the problem. Another German state, Baden-Württemberg, has also said it would be prepared to take people in.
One of the signatories was Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius, who told the Tagesspiegel newspaper on Monday that they had received no answer from his federal counterpart.
Read more: Brussels asks Germany to take child refugees from Greece
Refugee camp in Idomeni
An unanswered letter
“I was in Lesbos in early November,” he told the paper. “I saw hundreds of unaccompanied minors living outside the Moria camp in the mud in the olive groves, in tents made of garbage bags.”
“I appeal now urgently to the federal interior minister to allow the willing states permission to take in young refugees,” he said. “We cannot watch this misery any longer without doing anything.”
According to the Greece-based National Center for Social Solidarity (EKKA), over 5,000 unaccompanied minors are currently living in the country.
The mayors of several Greek islands have already warned of uncontrollable situations in their camps, many of which are chronically overcrowded, with occasionally violent demonstrations breaking out.
The situation is said to be particularly critical on the so-called hotspot islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos, and the Greek government has already attempted to move some refugees to the mainland.
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