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European aid effort: More children from Greek refugee camps arrive in Germany
press release 03 September 2020
Thirty-one children in need of medical care and their immediate families, for a total of 118 people, arrived at the airport in Hanover this morning. This brings the number of refugees flown from Greece to Germany up to 465 so far this year, including 53 unaccompanied minors and 99 children in need of medical treatment.
Following agreement within the Federal Government, Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer decided to admit 243 children needing medical care and their immediate families from refugee camps in Greece. The action was decided in the Coalition Agreement of 8 March 2020 and is part of a European aid effort to be completed in the coming weeks.
The children and their families are being relocated to nine federal states (Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia), based on a plan developed by the Federal Government together with the governments of all 16 federal states. This plan takes into account criteria such as family ties and specific medical needs.
Eleven of the 27 European Union member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia) along with Norway and Serbia have agreed to accept minors from refugee camps in Greece. Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal have already received refugees. The European Commission is coordinating this effort, with the help of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
