Because the number of refugees is increasing, more and more asylum seekers have to be accommodated in decentralized municipal and communal accommodation throughout the administrative district. This is the only way to guarantee the reception capacity of the arrival center and the so-called anchor center in Upper Bavaria, explained a spokesman for the Upper Bavarian government. The municipal social department is also preparing to provide accommodation for more refugees from Ukraine.
According to the government, the Munich accommodation branches of the “Anchor Center” are almost fully occupied with around 1,050 people. The asylum seekers come mainly from Afghanistan (around 30 percent), Turkey (17 percent) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (seven percent). Another 1,200 asylum seekers are currently living in the arrival center on Maria-Probst-Strasse and the associated accommodation. In May, around 33 people arrived there on average per day. At the moment, there are already more than twice as many at 71, and even more than 100 on some days. Most recently came from Turkey and Afghanistan, followed by Syria. All 18 community accommodations for asylum seekers operated by the government in Munich are fully occupied with around 1,960 people.
In view of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crises, the city is preparing to create more accommodation facilities for refugees. The social department has advertised the occupancy of a total of 600 beds in hotels and guesthouses and has initiated the planning of new container locations for refugees from the Ukraine. So far, the city has around 2,300 beds for this group of people, about half in hotels or guesthouses and half in temporary buildings. According to the specifications of the government of Upper Bavaria, the city had to create a total of 5,625 beds, reported social officer Dorothee Schiwy to the city council’s social committee, 4,500 of them for long-term accommodation.
Due to the refugee movements from the Ukraine, the Free State of Bavaria is expecting the arrival of 50,000 people across Bavaria and has asked the districts and municipalities to build up 80 percent of the capacities for at least five years to accommodate refugees. In order to achieve this goal and to be able to do without the lightweight halls that are less suitable for this purpose, the city must create another 3,320 beds in containers in addition to the 1,180 already planned, explained Schiwy. This requires around 20 additional locations.
The arrival center in the former Goethe-Institut also takes care of the many children of refugees from Ukraine.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
On average, around 30 refugees from Ukraine arrived at the Munich arrival center each day. From the beginning of April to the beginning of October, the city counted more than 20,000 arrivals there. So far, more than 15,000 refugees have been granted a residence permit. The job center assumes that around 8,000 households with around 14,000 refugees will apply for Hartz IV benefits, and around 7,500 applications have already been received. So far, only a small proportion of people from Ukraine have been housed in urban emergency shelters such as temporary buildings and rented accommodation facilities.
Most of them – around 10,000 to 14,000 according to estimates by the social services department – have been taken in privately, but it is increasingly becoming apparent that this is not possible in the long term. Then the city has to take care of the accommodation. Some refugees also returned to their homeland; there are no reliable figures on this, as people do not opt out. The further development is hardly predictable. So far, Bavaria and thus also the state capital had benefited from the fact that arriving refugees could be transferred to other federal states according to the quota distribution because Bavaria’s quota was overfilled. There is still no reliable evidence that Munich will have to take in more refugees, said a spokesman for the social department.
According to the social services department, around 6,500 people, including around 420 from Ukraine, are currently living in state community accommodation and decentralized city accommodation for asylum seekers. Because the state reception facility is fully occupied due to the increasing number of arrivals from third countries, the city has now made a lightweight hall with 200 beds available to the government of Upper Bavaria, which was previously occupied by refugees from Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of March we have been caring for and supporting the people who are fleeing from the Ukraine to us in Munich,” emphasizes the social officer, “and of course all people from other nations who are looking for protection with us. For almost all areas of our administration, this means another great challenge after the difficult Corona crisis, which has brought us to our limits.” The employees have done outstanding things in the past few months. But Schiwy also thanks “the many people in our city who helped us quickly and easily with the accommodation and who took refugees from the Ukraine into their homes”.
The social department does not expect much help from the announcement that the federal government wants to make real estate available. The city has already rented the former premises of the Goethe-Institut on Dachauer Strasse and has been running the arrival and transit center for refugees from Ukraine there since mid-July. There are also 275 beds. According to a spokesman, the social services department has no knowledge of other suitable federal commercial properties.