The action group ‘We’re going to get them’ will make a new attempt to get refugees from Greece, this time by plane. The group wants to take 189 migrants from the new Moria camp on board and bring them to the Netherlands.
The Boeing 737 has to depart from Rotterdam The Hague Airport on Monday morning for a flight to Mytilini, the capital of the island of Lesbos.
State Secretary Broekers-Knol has been asked to contact the Greek authorities to arrange for the migrants to leave. The plan is for the plane to wait two days for the selected refugees, the action group says.
‘We are going to get them’ says that the living conditions are also bad in the new Moria camp. That is why the Netherlands should receive a total of 1000 migrants from Lesvos. The call from society to receive more migrants is, according to the organization, “now deafening”.
‘You cross other endeavors’
But there is a good chance that the plane will return empty to the Netherlands. The State Secretary says he appreciates the good intentions, but nevertheless rejects the initiative. “You thereby thwart efforts already initiated by the Greek authorities, the European Commission, the Netherlands and other Member States”, Broekers-Knol writes in a response.
She points out, among other things, the fifty minors and fifty vulnerable migrants who are sent to the Netherlands achieved following the devastating fire in camp Moria at the beginning of last month. The Netherlands also provided 1 million euros in emergency aid. “I am therefore unable to grant your request to relocate people from Lesbos to the Netherlands,” said the State Secretary.
She also writes that the relocation of migrants must be properly prepared, for example through health and safety checks. According to Broekers-Knol, this cannot be achieved in a few days.
Failed action in 2018
At the end of 2018, a similar promotion from ‘We are going to pick them up’ ran up nothing from. The group left with dozens of cars and a bus to Athens with the aim of taking 150 refugees back to the Netherlands.
The bus already stopped at Duisburg. Once in Greece, the activists were able to return home without success, because, according to the organization, the Greek government did not respond to their request for an interview.
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