Germany steps in to rescue refugee children

Aya Ezz

Syrian children stranded on the Greek-Turkish border are part of a major humanitarian crisis, against the background of continued clashes between refugees trying to enter Greece, on one hand, and Greek police safeguarding the border, on the other.

The children sleep in the open, which makes them fall prey to the biting cold of the area. They do not have enough food and are prone to disease, especially with Covid-19 hitting hard everywhere.

Some European countries have decided to receive these children to protect them. Germany said on March 9 that it would accept 1,500 Syrian children.

There are around 1 million Syrian refugee children around the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

It said 19,000 Syrian children are now in the border area between Turkey and Greece.

Why Germany?

Germany received the largest number of Syrian refugees in 2018 and 2019, according to a study by the BBC.

By December 2018, European countries had received 18,094 refugees from Turkey. By the same time, Germany had received 6,614 Syrian refugees, the BBC said in its study.

It said the German government offers a stipend of 270 Euros every month to Syrian children under the age of six, 296 Euros to children under seven and 316 Euros to children under the age of 18.

As easy as putty

Political analyst, Mukhtar al-Ghobashi, said Germany has human grounds for its actions towards the Syrian refugees.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, works hard to help the refugees, even as she is under pressure not to do this by right wing parties, al-Ghobashi told The Reference.

He said some of the Syrians who go to Germany refuge to integrate into the German society.

This is why, he added, the German government prefers to accept refugee children because they are easy to adapt to living conditions in Germany.