A few days before Christmas Eve they had to pack their things. The request was clear enough: “Arrival directly to the accommodation by 2 p.m.”, according to a notice from the government of Upper Bavaria to the mother of a small child. “You are obliged to move into the accommodation mentioned under No. 2 on December 20, 2021.” If the young woman does not comply with the request, “we threaten to enforce it through direct coercion”.
The sudden coercive measure affects not only the 29-year-old and her child, but also two dozen other people, some of whom have been living in a state collective accommodation facility in Allach for years. These people have not done anything wrong. They just have to give way to others who have arrived in Munich in the past few days and need space to live: 120 Afghan local workers who were recently flown out and have now been brought to Munich.
But why do people whose children go to the nearby elementary school on Pfarrer-Grimm-Strasse and have made friends there move within seven days? Small children who go to daycare centers? Adults who have established social contacts? The government of Upper Bavaria responds very pragmatically to the SZ inquiry: The Afghan local staff and their family members “, unlike asylum seekers, already have a residence permit when they enter the country and are therefore entitled to search for private accommodation independently. Until this is successful, that is incumbent the government of Upper Bavaria to accommodate the people in temporary dormitories. ” Interestingly, the building in Allach was not a temporary dormitory, but shared accommodation. But that has now been redeclared with the departure of one and the entry of the other.
The process is “shocking and inhumane,” says Julia Sterzer
For Julia Sterzer, the whole process is “shocking and inhumane”. The manager of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) in Munich is, so to speak, responsible for the well-being of the refugees in the accommodation. In March 2020, Awo took over asylum counseling there for the now closed communal accommodation. She only found out about it shortly before the state-ordered exodus. What she found particularly frightening: The government did not even offer the people to help with the move. “You couldn’t have taken anything with you,” says the spokeswoman for the free welfare associations in Munich. Many of the residents have bought mattresses, beds and of course clothing at their own expense in recent years. “We then organized a bus at short notice,” says Julia Sterzer. With this, people could at least take their few belongings with them.
But since then people have been spread across different parts of the city and cannot even organize the bare minimum over the Christmas holidays. They don’t know where the children can go to school, where the little ones can get a daycare place, if at all.
Criticism also comes from the Office for Housing and Migration
Gerhard Mayer can actually only shake his head at this hasty action. “That is a way of dealing with people – we would deal with it differently,” says the head of the Office for Housing and Migration when asked by SZ. He only found out about the moves last Monday, but not from the government of Upper Bavaria. He only received relevant information from the government when he asked. Now “the child has already fallen into the well,” he complains. He and his employees from the Housing Office were unable to find urban accommodation at such short notice. At least the government says that “talks are also taking place with the state capital Munich”, “whether places are available in housing projects. Two families have already received approval for an urban housing project,” said a government spokesman. Five single men from the residential complex have now been housed in a shared accommodation in Poing.
The workers’ welfare department, the voluntary helpers on site and also in the social department are still at a loss, which is why the topic was not discussed with the city at an early stage. But the government of Upper Bavaria points out that “new arrivals from Afghan local staff and from other humanitarian programs are unfortunately often only announced very briefly in advance.”
For the approximately 120 people from Afghanistan who have now been brought to safety from the Taliban, the short-term vacant accommodation in the west of Munich will not be a permanent place to stay. At the end of 2022, the real estate contract for the apparently already somewhat run-down building will expire, after which the house will be demolished and a school will be built on the site.