Luxembourg Expresses Solidarity with Greece re. Migrant Crisis

On Friday 13 March 2020, Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Jean Asselborn, participated in the European Union's (EU) Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in Brussels.

On this occasion, the EU ministers discussed the challenges that European countries are currently facing with regard to immigration and asylum, in particular on the Greek-Turkish border. In this context, the ministers addressed the situation of unaccompanied minors present on the Greek islands.

Jean Asselborn reiterated that the Luxembourg government is prepared to welcome ten unaccompanied minors in the context of a relocation and thanked the European Commission for taking the initiative to go to the field and start preparations for the transfer of minors as soon as possible.

Faced with the migratory pressure facing the member states neighbouring Turkey over the past two weeks, Minister Asselborn expressed his solidarity with Greece and supported the idea of ​​deploying additional manpower and means to contribute to an improvement of the situation. He stated: "We must continue to welcome Greece's efforts to protect our external borders while respecting international law and human rights", adding that "real solidarity has been demonstrated by removing part of the burden from Greece which is crumbling under the weight of responsibility”.

According to the Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, this demonstrates that the EU is characterised by its humanity and its values. "It is unacceptable in a modern Europe to abandon children, that is to say the most vulnerable, to a precarious fate," said Minister Asselborn.

EU ministers then examined the implementation of the 2016 EU-Turkey declaration. Welcoming the fact that the EU has not given in to blackmail, Minister Asselborn expressed his support for a new package of support for refugees in Turkey.