Live from 10 a.m.: “No longer know where we should accommodate refugees and asylum seekers”
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Live from 10 a.m“We no longer know where we should accommodate refugees and asylum seekers”
At a media conference on Thursday on the status of the asylum and refugee sector, the President of the Association of Municipal Councils sounded the alarm.
At a press conference on Thursday, the Zurich Security Directorate provided information on the current status in the area of asylum and refugees in the canton and the municipalities. At the beginning, security director Mario Fehr told the media that the canton will be very busy with the issue of refugees during the winter and into the spring. Around 12,600 people with protection status S currently live in the canton of Zurich. In addition to people from Ukraine, the number of asylum applications has also increased. Around 1,500 asylum seekers are currently living in the Zurich communities.
There have been ten accommodations in the canton for a long time, and six more have recently been created. The new shelters are three short-term shelters, especially for people in need of protection from Ukraine, with a total of around 500 places. The remaining three are transit centers for asylum seekers with 290 places. “During the winter we will certainly have to open one or two more temporary accommodations,” says Fehr. It is not yet clear where these will be opened.
At the request of the cantons, the federal government wants to stop the early allocations to the cantons by mid-December. This should allow him to keep the people in the federal structures longer and ensure care in his accommodations.
Communities are required
“From our point of view, the situation is serious. We are approaching the breaking point in the communities,” says Jörg Kündig, cantonal councilor and president of the association of municipal councils in the canton of Zurich. Above all, the extension of status S until spring 2024 is a burden. “It’s becoming more and more important, not just to accommodate the refugees, but to integrate them.”
A major challenge is the lack of living space. “We’re running out of space. We no longer know where to house the asylum seekers and the refugees.” Private accommodation with host families would come to an end. At the beginning, 80 percent of the Ukraine refugees found shelter with families. Currently it is still 30 percent. The language is now about the accommodation of the people in containers, gymnasiums and civil defense facilities. “As we know, life in such facilities is not ideal and is only temporary,” says Kündig.
The children’s education also puts a strain on the school infrastructure of the communities. The shortage of skilled workers in care, social assistance and schools at the community level further exacerbates this problem.
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