Berlin The municipalities are demanding a comprehensive package of measures to accommodate and care for refugees. “Many cities and communities have long since reached their breaking point. The federal and state governments must now develop a concrete action plan together with the municipalities,” said the chief executive of the Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, to the Handelsblatt with a view to the refugee summit announced by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
Faeser had announced a new top meeting at the weekend. She sees “that there is still a need for action, and that’s why I will now invite everyone involved to another refugee summit at my house,” said the SPD politician on Sunday evening on the ZDF program “Berlin direct”. She did not give a date for the meeting.
In any case, neither the municipalities nor the Union consider a meeting only with Faeser to be appropriate in view of the difficult situation. When it comes to finances and accommodation, the minister is not solely responsible, said the deputy chairwoman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Andrea Lindholz, in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. “That’s why we’re calling for a larger refugee summit in the Chancellery.” The President of the District Council, Reinhard Sager, also warned: “In this situation, the districts urgently need political support from the Chancellery.”
In October there had already been a refugee summit by Faeser with representatives from the federal states and municipalities. At that time, the federal states and municipalities were promised 56 additional federal properties for the accommodation of refugees. Faeser did not make any financial commitments. In 2022, the federal government gave the federal states and municipalities financial support of 3.5 billion euros. A further 2.75 billion euros have been agreed for this year.
From the point of view of the municipalities, the funds will not be enough. “So far, for example, it has been completely unclear what the financing should look like from 2024,” said Landsberg, head of the Association of Cities. What is now necessary are “clear additional financial commitments from the federal government for the accommodation and care of the refugees, for school and daycare places and for the creation of new housing opportunities in the municipalities”.
Distribution of refugees also an ongoing issue at EU level
In Germany, more people applied for asylum last year than at any time since 2016. According to annual statistics from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, almost 218,000 people made such a request for protection in Germany for the first time. That was almost 47 percent more than in 2021.
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The approximately one million war refugees from Ukraine who came to Germany last year did not have to apply for asylum. You receive immediate temporary protection on the basis of an EU directive.
The municipalities consider the current situation to be barely manageable. “The federal government must immediately provide additional land and properties and put them in a condition from the outset that people can also be accommodated there,” said Landsberg, head of the association of cities. “We no longer have time to settle long-term construction projects with complicated financing issues.”
In addition, more initial reception facilities both in the federal states and in the responsibility of the federal government are quickly needed. “In migration policy, we are currently still far too far-sighted, instead of striving for and implementing long-term sustainable solutions,” criticized Landsberg.
From the point of view of the municipalities, this also applies at the EU level. The distribution of refugees is an ongoing issue there. To date, there has been no satisfactory solution, also because several Eastern European countries reject a binding quota for the distribution of refugees among the EU states.
EU migration summit discusses measures against unwanted immigration
The Swedish EU Council Presidency has scheduled a migration summit in Brussels for the end of the week to discuss how to deal with unwanted migration. The EU has been trying for years to deport more foreigners without a right to stay, but is making little progress.
In 2021, the European Court of Auditors found that the existing system was highly inefficient and did “the opposite of what it is supposed to do: instead of deterring it, it encourages illegal migration.” who actually left the EU was 29 percent.
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In 2021 it was only 21 percent – probably also due to the pandemic. The EU Commission had announced a target of around 70 percent in 2018. The traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP also announced a “repatriation offensive” in the coalition agreement. As of this month, Joachim Stamp (FDP), the Federal Government’s new special representative for migration agreements, is to take greater care of this.
From the point of view of many EU countries, more returns would also be important because the asylum systems in many countries are completely overburdened. Here, too, the municipalities in Germany are putting pressure on them. “The heads of state and government of the EU must finally agree on a coordinated migration policy and ensure an appropriate distribution between the EU states,” said the head of the Association of Cities in Landsberg.
In addition, clear deportation regulations are necessary for people who have no right to stay. “It is also the task of the EU to ensure that the countries actually take back their citizens and do not unnecessarily prolong the procedures,” said Landsberg.
In order to achieve improvements here, he suggested combining migration agreements with economic aid for the countries concerned or with the possibility of legal labor migration. “We can no longer continue on this issue at the latest now.”
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