116 refugees on the Greek island of Lesvos left for the German city of Hanover today.
This is the first direct flight from Lesvos as part of a humanitarian refugee reception program, through which 26 families traveled to Germany.
After the fire at the Moria migrant camp in September 2020, Berlin decided to receive 1,553 people from the Greek islands.
This flight is a result of the cooperation of the German services, including the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, with the Greek Ministry of Immigration and Asylum,as well as with other Greek authorities.
According to the German authorities, "the asylum situation in the Eastern Aegean islands and in Greece as a whole requires the solidarity of Europe and a fair distribution of burdens within the EU."
"That is why other European countries are involved in receiving refugees and migrants from Greece," they added in their statement.
With this flight from Lesvos, the number of refugees and illegal immigrants that Germany has received from Greece since April last year for humanitarian reasons amounts to only 1,677 people despite Berlin instigating the migrant crisis against Greece in 2015.
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