(Photo Credit: bobbsled)
Around 100 vulnerable asylum seekers, including minors, have been relocated to Finland and Germany from Greece and Cyprus refugee camps, according to the EU’s asylum coordination agency.
On 24 July Germany welcomed 83 refugees from families with seriously ill children who were relocated from Greece, in one of the first relocations of an EU plan to relocate 1,600 minors to various European countries.
On 27 July, 16 Somali and Congolese asylum seekers from single-parent families with small children were relocated from Cyprus to Finland.
All asylum seekers who were relocated were tested for coronavirus before the flight and all were found negative, as stated by the European Asylum Support Office, (EASO).
Refugee camp conditions in Greece
Greece houses about 5,00 refugee minors, most of them in deteriorating living conditions and overcrowded refugee camps.
Due to the problem of overcrowding, many makeshift camps have sprung up, angering locals.
Euro-Med Monitor’s response
Euro-Med Monitor’s response to recent events included, “the German and Finnish governments’ absorption of dozens of refugees from EU-Mediterranean states shows symbolic acknowledgment of the serious dangers posed to the lived of asylum seekers in overcrowded refugee camps, particularly during the Coronavirus pandemic,”
They also went on to say, “EU member states are urged to move from symbolic initiatives to more practical large-scale programs that effectively alleviate pressure on over-populated and ill-reputed camps.”
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