The first 30 asylum seekers were today relocated from Greece to Luxembourg under the EU relocation mechanism aimed at more evenly distributing the refugee influx.
Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Jean Asselborn, joined European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, along with Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Alexis Tsipras, President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and Greek Delegate Minister for Migration, Yannis Mouzalas, in Athens to bid farewell to the 30 asylum seekers as they prepared to travel to Luxembourg.
"My first wish is, as Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, that these families, that they would be able, and I think it will be a reality, to start a new life in our country," stated Jean Asselborn, who was also present for the first relocation of 19 refugees from Italy to Sweden last month. "To live in peace, in security and that one day, if they want, that they are also able to go back to their countries".
The Minister continued by saying that "walls, fences and barbed wire, they cannot be part of the future image of the European Union", advocating instead for "embodied solidarity and responsibility in this difficult challenge" and claiming that "if we fail, I think then the values of the European Union are destroyed in some way".
Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras echoed the sentiment, stating that today's relocation "is a start [...] just a drop in the ocean", and adding that "we want this drop in the ocean to become a stream and subsequently into a river, a river of shared responsibility".
Minister Asselborn and Commissioner Avramopoulos will today be engaged in working meetings with the Prime Minister, as well as Greek Minister for Migration, Yannis Mouzalas. Talks will aim to further assess the management of the migration crisis on Mediterranean islands and of the 'hotspots' which serve as the first port of reception for refugee arrivals, with a view to making them fully operational and establishing further successful relocations.
Top Photo by Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis. Bottom Photo by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Luxembourg (L-R: Dimitris Avramopoulos; Jean Asselborn at Athens International Airport)
