The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia wants to receive up to a thousand people from the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which was destroyed by fire.
However, Laschet has offered Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis to immediately take in children and their families and send humanitarian aid. He visited the camp with over 12,000 inhabitants a month ago.
The distribution of asylum seekers among EU countries has been a headache for years.
“The terrible images of the burning Moria should finally shake up Europe,” Laschet said on Twitter. His integration minister Joachim Stamp calls on the federal government in Berlin to take the lead in this.
Germany currently holds the rotating EU presidency. Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas wants to support Greece with the European Commission and helpful EU countries as soon as possible.
It is therefore about the distribution of refugees among the Member States that are willing to accept asylum seekers, he tweeted.
The European Commission will shortly present a plan for migration and asylum policy.