Pro Asyl calls for a new admission program for refugees

At the end of the German campaign to accept refugees from the burned down Greek camp in Moria, the organization Pro Asyl demanded a new program.

Berlin - "To end this process is completely irresponsible to those people who are left there with no prospects", said "Pro Asyl" managing director Günter Burkhardt to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (Wednesday edition). "The Greek islands are becoming open-air prisons." Asylum seekers would be left sitting there without access to asylum or legal protection.

The refugee organization demands that the federal government continue to accept refugees from Greece: "The program must be expanded and should not only include recognized refugees, but all those who have arrived." According to Pro Asyl, one of the last flights with refugees from the admission program will land in Germany on Wednesday. According to the organization, several thousand refugees from war regions are stranded in Greece.

They could not come to Europe because of the EU-Turkey Agreement, but neither could they be brought back to Turkey because Turkey is not safe and does not offer asylum to those seeking protection. Afghans in particular, the largest group, would face illegality there. After the devastating fire in the Greek refugee camp Moria on the island of Lesbos more than half a year ago, the federal government agreed in September 2020 to accept more refugees from Greece.

The fires in Moria, believed to have been started by migrants, left more than 12,000 people homeless. The CDU and the SPD had agreed that another 1,553 people on the Greek islands should find protection in Germany - this has largely happened. In Burkhardt's view, the corona pandemic has pushed the refugee issue completely into the background.

"The wave of outrage about the violation of human rights is no longer politically noticed," criticized the pro-asylum manager.

Source: Der Newsticker