Portugal, Finland, France, Germany, and Luxembourg agreed to receive unaccompanied minors stuck in Greek refugee camps, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced at a press conference focused on her first 100 days leading the commission.

According to the Portuguese newspaper Público, the EU made an urgent request to its state members to host minors that are in refugee camps located in the Greek islands without family. There is no information yet on the number of children that will be taken in by each country until foreign ministers debate the issue on Friday, but German media said it could involve 1,500 minors.

The Greek islands are now hosting around 42,000 refugees and migrants, including about 5,500 unaccompanied children.

"In the long term we need systematic, reliable processes to give unaccompanied minors a safe place to stay and a mechanism to deal with them," von der Leyen said, cited by The Parliament Magazine.

No 'luxury of remaining indifferent'

After the 2015 migrant crisis and the signing of the 2016 Turkey-EU agreement, million of refugees seemed to be "out of sight, out of mind" of the EU. But reality came knocking at the EU's door, after Turkey decided to open its frontiers at the beginning of the month, letting migrants reach the Greek-Turkish border, where they were met with violence and tear gas.

Turkey hosts around 3.7 million Syrian refugees, as well as migrants from other countries, such as Afghanistan. The agreement is based on the idea that Turkey would take the refugees on their way to Europe, and in return, it received billions of euros in aid. The EU would take in the refugees from the Turkish camps, directly, after their asylum requests were processed there to avoid illegal entries and thousands of tragic deaths in the illegal routes.

According to the EU, by the end of 2019, the 27-nation-bloc had paid half of the promised 6 billion euros to help with housing, schools and medical centers for refugees stranded in Turkey. The EU expects a further increase of 4 billion euros in by end-2020. This money is supporting 95 projects across Turkey, benefiting more than 1.7 million refugees, including 500,000 refugee children who have access to education.

Know more: EU tells Turkey to pull migrants back from Greek border

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan stated the current Syrian crisis is a threat to the region and Europe, and "no European country has the luxury to remain indifferent." 

Before meeting with Erdogan in Brussels on Monday, von der Leyen noted that the EU is in the "middle of a deep dilemma. There is pressure on the EU's external border – migrants need help and Greece needs help."

"This is a very acute situation. Finding a solution means relieving pressure on the border while ensuring that the individual right to request asylum is respected," she said, adding that "the right to ask for asylum is a fundamental right."

Greek camps are overcrowded and have inadequate living conditions. Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights criticized living conditions as "horrible" and reported lack of shelters, poor hygiene conditions and substandard access to medical care.