Deal to take in migrants from Greek island camps

Germany is to take in more than 1500 refugees from Greece following the fire that devastated Moria migrant camp on Lesbos, it emerged yesterday.

But under the terms of an agreement with the Greek government, the deal will not be limited to those directly affected by the fire. Instead, some 400 families with children will be resettled in Germany from migrant camps on a number of Greek islands.

Only those who have already been granted full asylum as refugees will be included.

The new deal is in addition to an earlier commitment by Germany to take 100-150 unaccompanied minors left homeless by the fire in Moria.

Although no official announcement has been made, government sources in Greece and Germany confirmed the arrangement. France is set to announce a similar deal in the coming days, according to sources in Athens.

Germany has been locked in a debate over whether to take in migrants affected by the fire in recent days.

The Greek government has refused to countenance any resettlement plan limited to migrants on Lesbos, which it says would reward arson. It says at least one of the fires was started deliberately by migrants in order to get off the island. German chancellor Angela Merkel initially pressed for an EU scheme to resettle migrants affected by the fire, but that now appears unlikely after a number of member states said they would refuse them.

Merkel has come under domestic pressure to act unilaterally in recent days, with her coalition partners, the centre-Left Social Democrats, calling for Germany to take in a ‘‘high four-digit number’’ of migrants from Moria. But she has also faced opposition from many in her own Christian Democrat party who believe if Germany acts alone, it will scupper any chance of an EU solution. –