Refugees: Germany has no followers

Germany wants to take in another 1550 refugees from Greece. Not on its own as in 2015, but in coordination with Greece and the EU Commission.

Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer even got EU Interior Commissioner Johansson on board already on Monday. In a joint letter they appeal to the EU countries to follow suit. But in vain – nobody follows Germany.

Not even France wants to do the same and accept families with children from the various camps in Greece. In Paris, there seems to be no need for action – because German aid has little to do with the drama in Moria.

Berlin does not want to help the homeless from Moria, but to relieve Greece. According to Brussels, 85,000 migrants currently live in Hellas, 26,700 of them on the islands. Lesbos alone is home to 14,585 migrants, including 4,064 children.

However, most EU countries are not yet prepared to help Athens. They are worried that this could send the wrong signal – and that refugee flows could then start moving through the Balkans again, just as they will in 2015.

In addition, Paris, Madrid and other capitals are waiting for the asylum reform announced by the EU Commission for next week. Until then, the refugee issue is unlikely to move much.

This has now also been recognised in Berlin. Seehofer admitted on Tuesday that no EU country wants to participate in the reception of the 1550 people.

Chancellor Merkel regretted that the desired European regulation for the reception of refugees had not been achieved. “This is not a sign of Europe’s ability to act and its values”, she said.

However, Merkel must be asked what values she actually stands for. For in parallel with refugee aid for Greece, she wants to have a new EU camp built in Moria.

From there, refugees not entitled to asylum will be sent back to Turkey in a fast-track procedure. So “Moria 2” is hardly different from the burned-down camp – except that this time the EU is involved.

In addition, Merkel is negotiating with the Turkish Sultan Erdogan about a new refugee deal to make “Fortress Europe” watertight again. In return, she even seems willing to transfer more money to Ankara.

Yet it is Erdogan who encourages, not to say incites, migrants to travel to Greece. If he had kept his deal with Merkel, Moria would not have been hopelessly overcrowded

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) The original post (in German) is here