The “anchor centers” for refugees in Bavaria are either overcrowded or almost completely at capacity. The government of the Upper Palatinate is currently reporting occupancy (as of September 19th) of around 1,900 people – but there are actually only 1,450 places. “Anchor centers” are the initial reception facilities for newly arriving refugees. The situation is similar in the Lower Franconian “anchor center”: The facility in Geldersheim/Niederwerrn (Schweinfurt district) recently housed almost 1,600 people. However, there is only space for 1200 people. The number of refugees in the “Anchor Center” was similarly high a year ago and at the turn of the year and was just over 1,400.
The “anchor center” in Upper Bavaria, with its headquarters in Manching (Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm district) and other locations in the administrative district, is currently at 95 percent capacity, a spokesman said. A year ago, occupancy was 77 percent, and at the beginning of the year it was already 90 percent.
The government of Lower Bavaria reports an occupancy of 88 percent for its “anchor center”. However, this is only a snapshot; the numbers could change at any time. At the beginning of the year, only around 68 percent of the 1,300 beds were occupied.
Newly arrived refugees will be accommodated in “anchor centers” and the work of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the Federal Employment Agency, the youth welfare offices, justice and immigration authorities will be pooled in them. This is intended to speed up the asylum process and also the deportation of those who do not have the right to stay. In order to continually create space in the facilities, people are distributed among the municipalities according to a certain key – and accommodated either in shared accommodation or decentrally in apartments.
While most administrative districts have the “anchor center” spread out over several branches, there is only one large accommodation in Upper Franconia – namely on a former barracks area in Bamberg. The anchor facility has been reaching its limits with its occupancy for a long time, said a spokeswoman for the Upper Franconian government. Around 2,550 people are currently accommodated there.
In Bamberg, conflicts among residents are increasing, writes the mayor
The mayor of Bamberg, Andreas Starke (SPD), now called for occupancy to be significantly reduced. “From the perspective of the city of Bamberg, this accommodation volume is no longer sustainable and threatens to overwhelm the existing structure, both in the anchor facility itself and in the urban environment,” he wrote in a letter to Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU). Conflicts among residents are now very common. “These increased conflicts are primarily due to the immense occupancy pressure. A clear indication that things cannot continue like this.”
When the facility was launched in 2015, an occupancy of a maximum of 1,500 people was set, emphasized Starke. The government of Swabia offers around 1,450 anchor positions. As of September 19th, 1,391 refugees were housed there. According to a spokesman, this corresponds to almost full capacity. After a decline in arrivals in the spring, the number of new arrivals has been rising sharply again in the last few months and is hardly predictable.
The “anchor center” in Middle Franconia with its branches is currently at capacity. A government spokesman said that almost 1,800 beds were available and the occupancy rate was 110 percent. The facility can only remain accommodating if people can move to so-called follow-up accommodation. But these facilities are also at capacity, it was said.