Status: 04/27/2022 08:53 a.m
According to a survey by Report Mainz burdened or even overburdened when accommodating refugees. Without the private housing offers, the situation would be even worse.
According to a survey of the 100 largest cities in Germany, almost 41 percent of respondents feel burdened or overwhelmed by the influx of refugees from Ukraine. The cities indicated that staff shortages and the issue of providing accommodation were the biggest challenges. 66 cities took part in the survey.
The general manager of the German Association of Cities, Helmut Dedy, said on request: “Especially the cities that take in a particularly large number of refugees are reaching their limits. You have to find a lot of living space very quickly. That doesn’t always work out right away and unfortunately leads to that people have to be housed in hotels or gyms at times.”
Private accommodation helps against overload
On request from Report Mainz the city of Wiesbaden announced: “Without the many private accommodations, we would have long since exceeded the capacity limit of our community accommodations. So we are at the limit and every week we are faced with the decision to have to use gyms.”
The city of Bottrop announced: “At the federal and state level, it has not yet been finally clarified how the costs are to be borne. […] The municipalities cannot bear the additional burden.” Dortmund concedes: “It goes without saying that in such a situation overload situations arise at all levels.” The Baden-Württemberg state capital Stuttgart writes that it has “(…) not enough space E.g. in the regular refugee shelters”. It must “be switched to emergency shelters”.
Conditions partly depressing
Another Report Mainz-A survey of the responsible ministries of the federal states showed: At least 55,000 Ukrainians are currently living in mass accommodation for refugees. From here they should be distributed fairly to the municipalities.
Report Mainz Images from refugee accommodation were leaked nationwide. You can see: dirty cupboards, dead insects, mold and dirt.
Case of rotavirus in mass accommodation in Hesse
Report Mainz researched the case of a Ukrainian who was housed with her three children in the initial reception center in Giessen. She reports that her one-and-a-half-year-old son contracted the rotavirus at the shelter. “He vomited for two days, had diarrhea, high fever.” Others got sick the following day.
The rotavirus is a highly contagious diarrhea that is particularly dangerous for small children. Despite her son’s illness, the Ukrainian was transferred with her children to another initial reception center – to Marburg in a shared bus.
The Gießen Health Department admitted that “a person with a rotavirus infection was reported in the initial reception center”. The Marburg health department writes on request that there were two cases of rotavirus in an emergency shelter in mid-March. The state of Hesse did not comment on multiple requests.
More federal money
At the Ukraine refugee summit on Monday in the Chancellery, the Federal Government Commissioner for Integration, Reem Alabali-Radovan (SPD), announced that the federal government would support the federal states in accommodating the Ukrainians and that the cabinet would decide on a supplementary budget on Wednesday.