Luxembourg may well provide a home to some of the 400 or so young refugees who were flown to mainland Greece after fire destroyed the Moria camp on Lesbos in the early hours of Wednesday. Foreign minister Jean Asselborn (LSAP) spoke with representatives from the European Commission and the German presidency of the Council of Europe on Thursday.

He told RTL radio that it was imperative that EU member states should be willing to take in some of the refugees as soon as possible--“tomorrow or the day after,” the minister said. Germany and France have already offered homes to some of the 400, and Asselborn said that Luxembourg would “of course” join them – “we just have to work out the details,” the minister said.

Luxembourg has already taken in some youngsters from Greece--12 unaccompanied minors who arrived in the grand duchy in April. But Asselborn said that so far only seven member states--Luxembourg, France, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Belgium and Ireland--have declared themselves ready to offer homes to young refugees who have been cut off from, or even lost their families.

A clearly frustrated Asselborn wants the European Commission to use all means at its disposal, including sanctions, to stop countries from evading their duty. “The European Union was built on human values,” Asselborn said. “It was created after the Second World War so that these things wouldn’t happen again. It will be interesting to see how many countries don’t join this effort. I fear it will still be an appreciable number.”