Refugees – Hanover – barracks are to become collective housing for refugees – politics
Hanover (dpa / lni) – In view of the increasing number of people seeking protection in Lower Saxony, the state will create further collective accommodation. According to the Ministry of the Interior, it is currently being examined, among other things, whether barracks in Cuxhaven and Delmenhorst can be considered as initial reception facilities in the state in terms of size. The situation in the municipalities is very serious and very stressful, said Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) on Thursday. “There’s a lot at the limit.”
The background is the large number of people displaced by war from Ukraine and asylum seekers from other countries. Compared to the refugee crisis of 2015/2016, the situation on the housing market is currently far more tense, and there is also the energy crisis and inflation, explained Pistorius.
“Who will overcome these challenges together,” stressed the Minister of the Interior after a meeting with representatives of the municipal umbrella organizations and some aid organizations in Hanover. After a meeting of the federal and state governments on the influx of refugees two days earlier, the Lower Saxony municipalities had initially expressed disappointment – also because no significant commitments had been made.
Because of the tense situation, the country should temporarily say goodbye to the demand for decentralized accommodation of refugees in apartments, said Pistorius. In the collective accommodation, however, the special protection interests of women and children traveling alone are taken into account, emphasized the SPD politician, who, according to his own statement, would like to remain Minister of the Interior in a new government. According to Pistorius, around half of the municipalities have already set up collective accommodation, for example in sports facilities or town halls.
The President of the Lower Saxony Association of Cities, Frank Klingebiel (CDU), emphasized that the refugees must also be given the opportunity to participate, which means “daycare, school, work, language”. The Lord Mayor of Salzgitter said that his city was already at its limit when it came to day care centers and schools, and others were also at their limits. “We have no more capacity.” Klingebiel appealed to the federal government with a view to further war expellees: “We need European participation mechanisms.”
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lower Saxony DRK State Association, Ralf Selbach, assured the support of the aid organizations in setting up and operating further collective accommodation. “What we need is planning security,” stressed Selbach. A certain lead time is also necessary. For example, it is about offering new contracts in refugee aid to employees and employees who are still working in corona vaccination teams as early as possible. Many orders for vaccination teams expire at the end of the year.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 105,000 people have fled from Ukraine to Lower Saxony since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression at the end of February, many of them women and children. According to Pistorius, around 115,000 asylum seekers from different countries have also arrived.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:221013-99-114424/4