The next bus that will bring refugees to the district has already been announced: At the end of next week, more people seeking protection are to arrive in the region and be accommodated in the former savings bank building near the Ebersberg train station. Although there is space for more than 200 people in total, the capacities are now slowly but surely running out. District administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU) and Brigitte Keller, head of the central department at the district office, confirmed this on Tuesday during a press conference. “The situation is still very tense,” says Niedergesäß, who is struggling to find a solution together with his district administrator colleagues from the region.
Brigitte Keller’s calculation example makes it clear that this must be done as soon as possible: When the new arrivals from next week have been accommodated, the district will only have the emergency reserve of 60 places in the building’s former counter hall. The people from the next but one bus would then have to be transferred there – “and then we no longer have any reserves,” says Keller. If no new accommodation can be found by then, this situation will be reached by mid-February. What happens to the refugees who arrive in the district afterwards is unclear. “As of today, we don’t have a concrete solution for this,” admitted Niedergesäß.
In Ebersberg, too, refugees could soon be housed in tents
Ebersberg is not alone in this situation, according to the district administrator, there is a similar picture in all Upper Bavarian districts. However, the consequences of this vary from region to region. While in Rosenheim, for example, gymnasiums are provided for refugees, in Fürstenfeldbruck they are trying to get the situation under control with tents. District Administrator Niedergesäß will continue to use all means to prevent sports facilities from becoming accommodation in Ebersberg. “We are one of the few districts that can still do without gyms. We’re trying to keep that.” The head of the district authority, on the other hand, has more to gain from the Fürstenfeldbruck model of setting up tents to accommodate refugees. Niedergesäß announced that this would also be checked for Ebersberg.
Despite the different strategies, all district administrators agree that the current situation is no longer sustainable – and that the federal government must finally provide relief. “We are thinking about how we can escalate the situation towards Berlin,” says Niedergesäß, who has repeatedly called for federal buildings to be used to accommodate refugees.
In any case, there are currently no signs that the number of participants will decrease in the coming weeks and months. On average, about 50 new people arrive in the Ebersberg district every two weeks, as Niedergesäß and Keller said. Among them, however, are hardly any more war refugees from Ukraine. “That surprised us a bit, because it’s actually the dead of winter there now,” said the district administrator. Instead, the new arrivals come from all parts of the world, most recently from Afghanistan and Syria. According to Brigitte Keller, there are also many families among the refugees. It is unclear how these people will be housed from mid-February. The only thing that is certain for Niedergesäß and Keller is that the district of Ebersberg cannot solve the problem alone. Instead, a national solution must be found as quickly as possible.