“There will be no new Moria!”, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Thursday 17 September, but “real reception centres” that will never again be able to reproduce the living conditions of the migrants in this overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos.
“Conditions that were unacceptable”, the Commissioner said in a debate with MEPs following the fire that completely destroyed Moria on 8 and 9 September and left more than 12,300 people homeless.
The European Parliament wanted to know how the Commission and the EU Council would react as the Commission will present its long-awaited ‘Asylum and Migration Pact’ next Wednesday.
But the EU Council was not present, to the disappointment of some, such as the Netherlands’ Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe), who ridiculed an institution “that is once again conspicuous by its absence”.
During the debate, a number of MEPs also denounced the living conditions in Moria, with Mrs in 't Veld wondering what the Greek authorities did with the hundreds of millions of euros received and how it was possible that “people who had received a positive asylum application and had refugee status” continued to live in the camp.
Most MEPs also supported the Pact’s aims of ending dysfunctions in the asylum system and creating a “permanent solidarity mechanism where each Member State will play a role”, said Roberta Metsola (EPP, Malta). But some went further, such as Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany) and the GUE/NGL, calling for “mandatory relocation” of asylum seekers among all EU27 with clear “quotas” for distribution, advocated the GUE/NGL.
According to Reuters, the Commission would reintroduce in its package mandatory relocation for all Member States in times of crisis. But some sources called for caution, saying that alternative solidarities would be provided. The Commission, for its part, has made no comment on the precise content of its proposals.
For Mrs Johansson, the Pact would in any case provide for “mandatory solidarity” and a clear perspective would be given to unaccompanied minors. A distinction will have to be made between those who are entitled to asylum and those who are not eligible and will have to be returned. But “all migrants have rights” and these persons must also be respected.
Five years after the great crisis of 2015, the Commissioner felt that it was time to play down the drama of this issue. “We must remain calm and pragmatic”, she urged, judging that the situation was no longer comparable with 2015, when nearly two million people, mostly Syrians, had come to the EU and most had received protection. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)