When a few dozen politicians and officials meet this Thursday in the Berlin Ministry of the Interior for the refugee summit, the tension in Markus Pannermayr’s town hall will increase a little. Straubing’s Lord Mayor knows the problems of the municipalities. And he hopes for solutions from Berlin.
The 51-year-old CSU politician, who is also deputy president of the German Association of Cities, reports that 1,500 people who have fled are currently looking for protection in his region alone. And from many other communities that are on the limit. Pannermayr demands that Germany’s cities finally need more help from the federal and state governments for accommodation, integration and costs. Important integration issues threatened to be neglected. Municipalities are often just trying to keep their heads above water.
More than a million people from Ukraine alone have sought protection in Germany
It’s not the only emergency call. In many places those responsible feel overwhelmed. Because the number of people seeking protection in Germany is high. Last year, 218,000 refugees applied for asylum – more than at any time since 2016. In addition, since the Russian war of aggression began a year ago, Germany has taken in more than a million war refugees from Ukraine. According to data from the media service Integration, the accommodations in almost all federal states are very busy, especially in large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Leipzig.
The last refugee summit in October actually promised quick help. At that time, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had promised additional federal real estate for the accommodation of refugees. But of the 39 apartments, houses, former barracks or open spaces named for North Rhine-Westphalia, 36 properties cannot be used for quick accommodation, criticizes NRW Refugee and Integration Minister Josefine Paul (Greens). In addition, the demands for more money are getting louder. The federal government must pay the promised funds quickly and “substantially increase its financial contribution,” says Paul.
But it is more than questionable whether the refugee summit will really bring relief to the coffers of the town halls. According to information from government circles, the meeting is attended by high-calibre Faeser, ministers from 16 federal states, municipal associations, the federal police and the influential Secretary of State for Finance, Werner Gatzer. But the chancellor will be absent. And above all, the finances should continue to be argued for the time being. In any case, the federal government has so far rejected demands from the federal states and municipalities for more money and, for its part, criticizes the fact that the federal states are not passing on federal funds to the cities. Faeser, according to people close to her, has her hands tied when it comes to money.
The federal government, on the other hand, is signaling new movement in the area of accommodation. The Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks could make additional areas and buildings available at the summit in order to defuse the situation. It is being examined intensively to see what is possible.
The Greens in particular are increasing the pressure in the traffic light coalition. “The federal government has an obligation to make more of the federally owned buildings and land available,” says Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt Süddeutsche Zeitung. However, that is not enough and does not help everywhere. “The big task will therefore be to create more and new accommodation options and to distribute those who have fled better and more fairly than before.” With the increasing duration of the Ukraine war, integration is also gaining in importance. The people from Ukraine should “be able to gain a better foothold with us”. It is important to “put them to work quickly”.
“The refugee summit belongs in the chancellery,” says the CDU
For months, the Union faction has been accusing the federal government of paying too little attention to the increasing number of refugees and of leaving the municipalities largely alone with the problem. “The migration crisis is getting worse day by day,” says the first parliamentary director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, of the SZ. The January asylum numbers that are now available would also be “at a record level”. Unfortunately, it shows “once again that Ms. Faeser does not have the situation under control”. Many municipalities are already “standing with their backs to the wall and cannot take in any more refugees”.
In such a situation, “Olaf Scholz must make the migration crisis a top priority at national level – the refugee summit belongs in the Chancellery,” says Frei. In addition, it is “unacceptable that the traffic light continues to send the signal that everyone who has made it to Germany will stay here”. That triggers “of course a new pull effect”. This tendency is “the fundamental error of the government’s migration policy”.
Andrea Lindholz, the deputy leader of the Union parliamentary group, even accuses Interior Minister Faeser of a “migration policy ghost trip”. The other EU states would like to end “uncontrolled migration”, “only the federal government is allowing irregular immigration to run unchecked,” complains the CSU politician.
The refugee organization Pro Asyl, on the other hand, calls on the federal states and municipalities to react flexibly and to support asylum seekers in finding accommodation with relatives, friends or in their own apartments instead of in collective accommodation. To do this, they would have to exempt asylum seekers from the obligation to live in asylum reception facilities, as the state of Berlin has already done.