This afternoon, 162 refugees landed in Hanover: 42 families made up of 77 adults and 85 minors. All of them belong to the group whom the Greek government has already recognised as being entitled to protection.

This brings the total number of refugees admitted from Greece since April 2020 to 2,562.

These families will be admitted by the federal states of Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.

Following agreement within the Federal Government and a decision by the coalition committee at its meeting on 8 March 2020, Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer decided at that time to admit 243 children needing medical care and their immediate families as well as 53 unaccompanied minors from Greece, as part of a European aid effort. The operation to bring these children and their families to Germany has now been brought to a close.

In addition to the 243 children in need of medical care and their families, the Federal Government agreed to admit two more groups of refugees.

• after the fires at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, Germany admitted 150 unaccompanied minors from the camp who were in need of shelter.
• in addition to these unaccompanied minors, Germany decided to admit a further 1,553 family members from the Greek islands whom the Greek government had already found to be entitled to protection.

The refugees are being relocated to the various federal states based on a plan developed by the Federal Government together with the governments of all 16 federal states. This plan also takes into account criteria such as family ties and specific medical needs.