Many would certainly wish for such a quick agreement as there was in the most recent meeting of the Poinger building and environmental committee on many a federal policy issue: It was less than a minute before the day to extend the building permit for the five containers in Grub near Poing, which serve as accommodation for asylum seekers, was dealt with. Without discussion or questioning, the committee members unanimously approved the extension of the building permit for a further two years until June 30, 2024.
In March 2017, a so-called central shared accommodation facility for asylum seekers was set up in Grub in the Ebersberg district. Since then, the operator has been the government of Upper Bavaria, and the property belongs to the Free State. According to the building planning law, the municipality of Poing would hardly have had an opportunity to refuse the building permit.
Originally, the permit would have expired at the end of June this year after a good five years of use. Because with the large influx of refugees and asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, the Free State has created opportunities under which it can build and operate such urgently needed accommodation more easily than before on municipal property.
Up to 150 people can live in the containers
The five individual containers offer space for a total of up to 150 people. In 2017, asylum seekers who were previously housed in the air dome in the neighboring town of Pliening – the second central accommodation in the district at the time – as well as residents from initial reception facilities moved in there. There was also an air dome in Grub, exactly where the container accommodation is now located. Initially, nobody moved in there for reasons of economy, as the government of Upper Bavaria had decided at the time. However, due to a fire in the Plieninger air dome in November 2016, the approximately 200 men who lived there temporarily moved to the Gruber air dome. In February 2017 the journey went back to the repaired air dome in Plieningen – and in June to the containers in Grub that had been erected in the meantime. The Plieninger air dome was dismantled just like the one in Grub.
He is not aware of any recent problems with residents, says Poing’s Mayor Thomas Stark (independent) when asked. There were also no more attacks on the accommodation, as happened in the summer of 2017. At that time, strangers had smeared the accommodation with xenophobic slogans.
“The need for the containers was still there before the war in Ukraine,” Mayor Stark continues. “And now, of course, the need for shelter is even more acute.” For this reason, none of the parties involved considered the possibility of changing the extension plans.
So far, no Ukrainian refugees have lived in the Gruber containers – they do not need a residence permit, at least initially until August 31, like this Federal Ministry of the Interior decided in early March. Asylum seekers still live in Grub.