Europe should take more minors from Moria migrant camp: Germany's Scholz

Reuters
·1 min read
EU finance and economy ministers hold informal meeting in Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Plans by European countries to take some 400 unaccompanied children from the burned down Moria refugee camp in Greece should mark just the beginning of their efforts, German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday.

Fires destroyed Greece's biggest refugee camp on Wednesday, leaving more than 12,000 people without shelter and returning the spotlight to the issue of refugees and migrants coming to the European Union, which has struggled to find a response.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Friday Germany would take in 100 to 150 unaccompanied minor refugees, and that a total of nine EU states and Switzerland had agreed to take in around 400 children from the camp.

"This has to be more," said Scholz, who is also Germany's finance minister and the left-leaning Social Democrats' (SPD) candidate to run for chancellor in elections due next year.

He was speaking after a meeting of EU finance ministers.

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Clelia Oziel)