Status: 03/16/2022 11:55 a.m
175,000 refugees from Ukraine have officially reached Germany. The Union called for better state coordination. Berlin’s Social Senator Kipping said the federal government had “completely underestimated” the situation.
The Union has called on the federal government to do more for war refugees from Ukraine and also to ensure that they are distributed throughout Europe.
Deputy CDU chairwoman Silvia Breher told the dpa news agency that Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser “must finally take care of coordinating the reception and help for women and children between the federal, state and local authorities”. “I only see laissez-faire instead of leadership. The women and children who have fled Ukraine suffer from this.”
It must be ensured that the arrival and reception of refugees are finally better coordinated – by the state, according to Breher.
175,000 refugees officially registered
Within one day, the German authorities registered around 15,000 new arrivals from Ukraine. Since the start of the Russian attack, 174,597 people have entered the country from Ukraine and been registered, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
As a rule, there are no fixed border controls at the EU’s internal borders, and Ukrainians are allowed to enter the country without a visa – the number of people who have arrived is therefore probably significantly higher.
Faeser made it clear that there would be no stationary border controls at the German border. The situation is completely different from 2015, and there is no legal basis for controls, she said on “Bild live”.
Hermann: “National and European tour de force”
The chairman of the conference of interior ministers, Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann, described the quick help for the refugees as “a joint national and European effort”. The CSU politician emphasized in the editorial network Germany that the federal government had promised a fair distribution among the federal states and relief for the hotspot regions. Equally important is an orderly and fair distribution between the EU members.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Integration, Reem Alabali-Radovan, believes that Germany is in a better position to take in refugees from the Ukraine than it was when the refugees arrived in 2015. “We are definitely better prepared,” she said ARD morning magazine.
“We are better prepared than in 2015”, Reem Alabali-Radovan, SPD, Federal Government Commissioner for Integration, on the integration of refugees from the Ukraine
Morning magazine, March 16, 2022
Cities insist on refugee summits
The German Association of Cities called for a refugee summit from the federal, state and local governments. “It should send out the signal that we want to work together to cope with the movement of refugees through this war with a great deal of effort,” said the chief executive of the city council, Helmut Dedy, of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. “We also expect clear commitments from the federal and state governments that they will support the cities on a large scale in financing the accommodation and care of people.”
A few large cities should not be overburdened while capacities are still free or can be created elsewhere.
Kipping criticizes the federal government
Berlin’s Senator for Social Affairs, Katja Kipping, criticized the federal government for “completely underestimating” the influx of refugees. She told the “Tagesspiegel” that she had the impression that the explosiveness of the figures in the federal ministries had “not arrived to the same extent”. This is also due to the fact that Berlin reacted very well. “For all the problems, there were no pictures of long lines like in 2015”. Apparently, that delayed many people’s realization of what was being achieved in Berlin.
Kipping warned of a sharp increase in the number of refugees. Poland is now sending significantly more trains to Berlin because the country has also reached its capacity limit. “We must therefore be prepared for sudden increases in the number of arrivals,” said the senator.