Status: 02/12/2023 09:19 am
Millions of people have fled Ukraine – many to Eastern European countries. Interior Minister Faeser is now calling for a fairer distribution within the EU. In addition, the federal states should deport more rejected asylum seekers.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has called for a better distribution of Ukrainian refugees in Europe. “Should there be another large flight from Ukraine, the refugees in Europe must be better distributed,” said the SPD politician to “Bild am Sonntag”. The Eastern European neighbors in particular should be relieved. So far, Poland has taken in more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees, while Spain has taken in 160,000. “It can’t stay like this,” said the minister.
In recent months, however, we have not seen more people flee Ukraine as fighting intensifies. Eight out of ten refugees came from Ukraine last year – a total of over a million people. There should be no admission limit for the women and children who have fled. “We have therefore done a great deal to limit irregular migration from other countries, for example through more intensive border controls,” emphasized Faeser.
Refugee summit with the municipalities
On Thursday, Faeser wants to welcome representatives of the conference of interior ministers and the municipal umbrella organizations to a refugee summit in Berlin. One of the topics there should be the limitation of illegal migration to Germany.
“But we also have too few deportations by the federal states responsible for them. We will talk about all of this at the refugee summit next week,” Faeser told the newspaper. The government wants to conclude migration agreements with countries of origin soon, “also to be able to carry out more returns.”
Municipalities lack places
The warnings from the municipalities have been getting louder and louder for months: The capacities for caring for refugees are almost or have already been reached. There is a lack of places in accommodation, in schools or daycare centers and apartments. The municipalities are pushing for more financial support from the federal government.
The dissatisfaction with how the refugees are being accommodated is also partly expressed on site. Most recently, there were massive, sometimes right-wing extremist protests in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania against a planned container village for 400 people.
Federal government provides real estate
The last refugee summit took place in October. At that time, Faeser assured that additional federal real estate should be made available for the accommodation of refugees. According to information from your ministry, the federal government has provided accommodation for almost 70,000 people. About 64 percent of this is currently being used.
Last November, the federal and state governments also discussed the topics of migration and the care of refugees at the Prime Ministers’ Conference. The federal government expanded its financial support and provided an additional 1.5 billion euros.