Berlin is heading into a pre-Christmas refugee crisis
Missing seats, missing staff
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Berlin is heading into a pre-Christmas refugee crisis
Wed 12/21/22 | 7:38 p.m. | Of
Not only refugees from Ukraine arrive in Berlin, but also asylum seekers from other countries. The admission capacities are at the limit, the social administration is working on the limit. More accommodation is to be created. By L. Schwarzer, A. Ulrich and S. Schöbel
Ruslan buries his hands in the pockets of his padded winter jacket, his voice sounds tired but determined. “I come from Poltava. Many have lost their homes.” Reports assumed from the missile front kept dropping Russians on the city southwest of Kharkiv. The power often goes out because Russian troops are shelling power plants. The actual front is less than 300 kilometers away.
Bunk bed in the big tent
Like thousands of people since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, Ruslan has taken refuge in Berlin. However, he does not have an apartment here either: he is at Terminal C of the former Tegel Airport. Refugees now live where people used to fly on vacation. A banner welcomes you to the “Ukraine Arrivals Center TXL” above closed baggage carousels.
Actually, according to the original plan, the refugees should only be registered here and sleep a maximum of three nights before they are accommodated in Berlin – unless they are distributed to other federal states anyway. The reality is different, reports Ruslan. “People have been waiting for several months, two or three, to be placed in regular apartments. There is also no waiting list.”
When asked by rbb, the social administration explained: Such long waiting times are the exception – but two to three weeks are normal. And internal figures from the administration show: In September, only 125 people had to stay in Tegel for more than three days before they could find accommodation, but in the week before Christmas it was almost 2,200 people. Instead, people live between partition walls and sleep in bunk beds.
Arrival center is expanded, Tempelhof gets containers
Further accommodations in lightweight halls are already being built on the former runway. Up to 3,200 additional places are to be created in this way. We already know that this WILL NOT be enough. Around 200 refugees still arrive in Berlin every day, says Sascha Langenbach, spokesman for the State Office for Refugee Affairs (LAF): “That’s 6,000 people in one month.” In Tegel, space is becoming scarce because the terminals A and B have to be vacated at the beginning of the year, this is where the refurbishment for the Technical University to move in is to begin. Soon there will be another 800 to 900 spaces in containers that are set up in the hangars of the old Tempelhof airport.
It is a daily fight against time for the Berlin authorities: social administration and the state office create temporary accommodation together with refugee organizations, social agencies and districts, always knowing that it will not be enough because more people are coming every day. According to the Senate, almost 30,000 accommodation places have been created so far – not even counting the large arrival center at the former Tegel Airport and on the LAF site in the north of Berlin. The occupancy rate was more than 99 percent. According to Berlin Senator for Social Affairs Katja Kipping (left), up to 10,000 more places should be added by the end of the year. As of now, you have a little over 8,000.
Refugee initiatives sound the alarm
“Land below.” That’s exactly how Anne-Marie Braun from the “Schöneberg Helps” association explains the situation when it comes to accommodating refugees. Together with her team, she offers advice, helps with dealing with the authorities and with filling out the many forms. 95 percent of people would currently ask for accommodation. The association “Schöneberg helps” is receiving more and more complaints from the mass accommodation, explains Braun. “‘Help, we’ve been here three weeks!’, ‘Help, the light is on 24 hours a day!’, ‘Help, I have Crohn’s disease, diabetes!’, ‘Help, I have four children!’ – It’s just a hideous situation.”
Ruslan’s description in Tegel also sounds uninviting. “I live in a tent here,” he says. “It’s very cold, we have a lot of problems with the heating and heaters that can’t be fixed.” In the tents, the temperature sometimes drops to four degrees Celsius. “We’d have to sleep warmly dressed.” Some people are now considered sick.
Trouble with LAF security service
The situation at the initial reception center for asylum seekers in Reinickendorf is clearly more dramatic, but not just because of the lack of space. Here, just a few kilometers from Tegel Airport, Customs and the Federal Police were recently on the mat. The private security service on the premises on Oranienburger Strasse was inspected, primarily to combat undeclared work.
In fact, however, investigators have had their sights set on the security guards at the LAF for a long time: the allegations of violence against asylum seekers, blackmail, coercion and forced prostitution are at stake. Among other things, individual security guards are said to have sold appointments with the LAF and sleeping places for money. Kipping promises clarification and asks for anonymous tips.
Registration staff is missing
The situation probably also arose because the LAF does not keep up with the registration of asylum seekers. Personnel was already scarce beforehand, but the situation has worsened again due to numerous sick reports. The “traffic jam” at registration has now reached 1,800 people. Social Senator Kipping has now asked all of her administration in a letter to help out voluntarily in the LAF if possible. After an induction period, you will take on the late shift until 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Austrian Slavic scholar then experienced for herself how difficult even supposedly small things are: the left-wing politician made a typo in the name of an Afghan family. “It’s pretty exciting, because you decide the fate of people with a wrong entry,” she says. Among other things, the distribution of accommodation, in Berlin but also in other federal states, and of course the social benefits depend on the registration. A bureaucratic act that has to be done properly under high pressure. And yet, LAF clerk Irene Pfeffer explains in a friendly manner. “It’s about humanity. Treating people the way you would like to be treated yourself.”
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, December 21, 2022, 8:20 p.m