When Greece asked EU countries to send aid after a refugee camp housing several thousand migrants burned to the ground, Denmark volunteered.
Nearly 3,000 blankets, 10 larger tents and 40 smaller tents were sent to help the Greek island of Lesbos, where the burnt-down camp Moria is.
A Danish NGO working on the island has since criticized the Ministry of Defense for sending useless tents to the distressed migrants.
But Denmark delivered what was demanded, the Ministry of Defense informs Ritzau.
It is the NGO Team Humanity that has referred to the 40 tents as “camping tents” and said that they “are useless at best”.
The reaction came after Defense Minister Trine Bramsen (S) stated earlier this month that the smaller tents can not be “used in the long term, including in a colder and wetter autumn period”.
The Minister did so in a reply to the Danish Parliament’s Immigration and Integration Committee on 9 October.
Here it appears that the 2900 wool blankets are of high quality, and that the ten large tents are inflatable and with the possibility of installing heating or cooling.
The 40 light tents, which measure approximately 3.5 meters x 7 meters, are a type that the Danish Emergency Management Agency itself uses when personnel from the agency are sent out for international operations.
– The quality is good, but the tents are not suitable for active heating or cooling, the minister writes in the answer.
The Danish Emergency Management Agency has put together the emergency aid package for the Greek island. And the content of the package has been coordinated through the EU and in close cooperation with the Greek authorities, it appears.
The package was intended to help with the emergency situation the island was in after the refugee camp burned down.
The Ministry of Defense states that if the Greek authorities again ask for help, the ministry will look into the request.
The Minister of Defense’s answer to the Immigration and Integration Committee
Source: The Nordic Page