A year ago, Germany started taking in children and youths from Greek refugee camps. Now the last flight is due with 47 young migrants. Germany took in the largest share of these people needing protection.
The flight is due in Hanover, capital of the northwestern state of Lower Saxony on Thursday.
For the first time on 18 April 2020, the first 47 young ones from the disastrously overcrowded camps on the Aegean islands Samos, Chios and Lesbos arrived. Lower Saxony’s Social Democrat Interior Minister, Boris Pistorius, noted that it had been possible to remove almost 3,000 people from the “wretched conditions” in the camps on the Greek islands.
“Germany should keep leading the way in this issue, especially in view of the present circumstances, in particular after the devastating fire [in Moria] last September,” Mr Pistorius said. Germany took in the biggest share of the refugees taken off the islands. Pistorius emphasised that this fact would have to play a part in further German involvement. “It is now important not only to do something ourselves but also to remind the other European states of their humanitarian obligations.”
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Children needing treatment also admitted
Initially, a year ago unaccompanied minors were removed from the refugee camps, then children needing medical treatment with their relatives and finally people already recognised in Greece as needing protection, the interior ministry in Hanover said.
Germany took in 53 unaccompanied minors, 16 of whom stayed in Lower Saxony. They were admitted to enable them to apply for asylum in Germany.
The children and youths who arrived in Lower Saxony in April last year were looked after for a two-week quarantine in a well suited location and received medical and psychological support. Subsequently they were transferred to local youth welfare authorities in Lower Saxony and other states. They had placed them in suitable facilities or with suitable people.
Auch 243 children needing treatment and their relatives – 1,035 people in all were flown to Germany and 71 stayed in Lower Saxony. First-admission facilities of the states handled this.
The federal government had pledged to admit 1,553 more people as recognised asylum seekers. That is 408 families. Before their distribution to the states most were centrally taken in by a camp at Friedland in Lower Saxony that used to serve as the receiving centre for people fleeing communist East Germany. According to the Lower Saxony interior ministry, the admissions from Greece will be completed with the last flight this Thursday. The status at the start of the week was that 1,423 people from this contingent were taken in, while 207 stayed in Lower Saxony. The ministry says the state has taken in 329 refugees from Greece.
