DThe federal states are preparing to take in numerous refugees in the coming weeks and months. In some places, emergency shelters are being set up again in tents and exhibition halls, according to a survey by the Evangelical Press Service in the 16 federal states. Several countries emphasized that they want to avoid using gymnasiums as refugee shelters.
The reason for the expansion of capacities is not just the war in Ukraine. According to the Bavarian Interior Ministry, among other things, the available places are occupied mainly because of the significant increase in the number of asylum seekers for some time now. Taken together, the influx of people from Ukraine and asylum seekers is at its highest level since 2016.
Saxony-Anhalt accused the federal government of not providing reliable forecasts about the arrival of asylum seekers. In recent years, especially in the autumn and winter months, a particularly large number of people have come to Germany in search of protection. The Ministry of the Interior of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania stated that further developments were “impossible to reliably predict”. However, an easing of the situation is not to be expected.
Two 400-person tents in Tegel
By October, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees counted almost 160,000 initial applications for asylum in Germany in the current year. That was almost 40 percent more than the year before. Most applicants came from Syria, followed by people from Afghanistan and Turkey. At the same time, the authorities estimate the number of Ukrainian war refugees in Germany to be around one million. They do not have to go through an asylum procedure, are often accommodated by relatives and do not always register.
Therefore, only a few Ukrainians stay in the initial reception facilities of the federal states, they are usually taken on directly by the municipalities. The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Integration admitted that refugees from other countries are currently staying in the initial reception longer than planned in order to relieve the cities and districts.
From North Rhine-Westphalia it was said: “More and more municipalities are currently reaching a point where they can only accommodate newly arriving people in emergency places.” The Hamburg interior authority said that more than 99 percent of the places in the Hanseatic city were occupied, it would be already resorted to halls and tents.
With regard to the first admissions, it was said from Berlin that the accommodations were more than full, currently almost 3,000 people were waiting for accommodation in the two arrival centers in the federal capital. Two 400-person tents are already in operation at the Ukraine arrival center in Tegel, and more emergency shelters are to be set up. Numerous closed container accommodations have already been put back into operation.
