Not enough sleeping places: city day demands refugee summit

The German Association of Cities calls on the federal government to convene a new refugee summit. With the beginning of winter, there was a risk of bottlenecks in accommodating the refugees. A fair distribution is also required.

The German Association of Cities sees bottlenecks in the accommodation of refugees and has called on the federal government to convene a new refugee summit with states and municipalities as soon as possible.

The association’s president, Mayor Markus Lewe, told the dpa news agency that there was an urgent need to talk about the necessary increase in the reception capacities of the federal states, a fair distribution of the refugees and appropriate reimbursement of costs.

Distribution of the refugees does not work

From the City Day’s point of view, it is alarming that more and more federal states are allowing themselves to be blocked for taking in Ukrainian war refugees. As a result, the distribution of refugees no longer works, said Lewe. The federal government should therefore intervene quickly in a coordinating manner.

The City Day expects that the number of refugees from Ukraine will increase with the onset of the cold season. In addition, it must be assumed that some of the Ukrainians who are currently living in private households will then have to be accommodated by the state. In addition, the number of asylum seekers and refugees from other countries is also increasing.

Capacities were not enough

“In the coming winter, a number of cities will again have to accommodate refugees in hotels, gymnasiums or other facilities,” says Lewe. The places in schools and day-care centers are also not enough for the foreseeable future. Against this background, Lewe would like to recall the “promise made by the federal and state governments in April to review and adjust reimbursement if the need increases”.

In April, the federal and state governments agreed that war refugees from Ukraine would receive basic state security from June 1st, i.e. the same benefits as Hartz IV recipients.

At a refugee summit in the Chancellery on April 24, in which the leading municipal organizations also took part, the main focus was on school places and additional efforts to better integrate people who fled the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.