In the basement of Berlin’s main train station, it’s very busy. Hundreds of people crowd around the tables serving drinks and food, waiting to see what happens next. They are people who fled the war in Ukraine. Volunteers in yellow and red vests hand out flyers telling them where to find the buses that are supposed to take them further. Volunteers have been taking care of the people who need help for days. For days, however, they too have felt abandoned and are talking about chaotic conditions. Because, according to her, hardly anyone from the Berlin administration showed up. Helpers criticize that they often have to spend hours looking for a contact person in the Senate administration.
Gennady is 59 years old and Ukrainian. He has lived in Berlin for twenty years. He volunteered to support his compatriots at the main train station. His yellow vest features a Ukrainian flag. “It’s total chaos here. It’s not a good government organization,” he says. There is also no information that is reliable. One helper said that the people had to be registered at the reception center in Reinickendorf, while the other didn’t mention Reinickendorf at all.
Gennadi just wanted to take a Ukrainian family to the train to Paris, but they were told there that the train was fully booked. So he guided the people to a bus. Another helper, on the other hand, says that things are actually going quite well – even without the Senate administration. In the RBB “Abendschau” a volunteer speaks of the lack of support: “We hoped that the Senate would help. I don’t know where they all are.”
Bernhard Moser, organizer of the gourmet festival eat! berlin, criticizes that the helpers are slowed down. Moser is currently taking care of the war refugees and has converted the kitchen of his Wedding restaurant for this purpose. It is impossible to set up a catering kitchen at the main station to prepare a warm meal for those who arrive. Deutsche Bahn does not provide electricity.
But the fact that Moser is not allowed to set up a kitchen in the main station has nothing to do with the power supply, which the railways are said to be refusing. Rather, it is about fire protection. According to the fire brigade, operating a kitchen would mean too high a fire load and is not permissible from a safety point of view – especially with these crowds.
Norbert Raeder, district councilor and restaurateur from Reinickendorf, is one of the volunteers at the central arrival point in Reinickendorf. “I am there every evening to take care of the arriving refugees. What I experience there is totally chaotic,” he says. It was mostly mothers with children. He felt that they would be addressed by security forces in a “quite gruff tone”. “When I hear them being told in a commanding tone to queue up at the test center, I always think that people can be welcomed first.”
According to Raeder, many refugees have come to Berlin with their dog, cat or canary. You could not be taken in with a pet in the conventional refugee accommodation. That in itself is a problem, says Raeder. In addition, the reception center itself is not designed for so many people arriving. The restaurateur himself temporarily takes in people who have not been distributed and who are left in his event bar “Kastanienwäldchen”. Raeder would like to see better organization from the state. He says: “Without the many volunteers, the refugees would be totally lost. This can not be.”
Berlin’s Governing Mayor opens the Welcome Area
Thomas de Vachroi, poverty officer at the Simeon Diakoniewerk and Neukölln church district, finds the criticism of the Senate administration unjustified. De Vachroi is experienced in crises. During the wave of refugees in 2015, he headed the facility for refugees in Wilmersdorf town hall. “We are facing a completely different situation than in 2015 and first have to deal with this flood of people who arrive in Berlin every day,” he says. Above all, this time mostly mothers with children are among the refugees. This also presents the Senate with a completely different challenge, since those arriving need special protection.
So far, it has mainly been private donors and associations that are managing the crisis. The crisis team of the Senate, which is linked to the Senate Chancellery, has now involved organizations such as the German Red Cross and the Malteser in the relief measures. The THW has been in action at the main station and in Reinickendorf since Sunday.
From Wednesday, the Senate hopes things will be less chaotic at the main train station. A “welcome area” will open on the station forecourt on this day. In the huge tent with the name “WELCOME HALL LAND BERLIN” arriving refugees from the Ukraine are to be cared for and provided with information. From there they would be taken to the new arrival center that is currently being built in the former Tegel Airport, says Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) when she presents the new “Welcome Area” together with Social Senator Katja Kipping (Left) on Tuesday evening. The arrival center in Reinickendorf is reaching its limits. Normally, 1,000 people arrive here every month, according to Giffey. She has not yet been able to say when the new arrival center in Tegel will open.
Regarding allegations by helpers that nobody from the local social administration was showing up, Kipping said: “As the state of Berlin, we organize the infrastructure. But there are experienced players who can be responsibly handed over to run the business. The people in the crisis team are doing their utmost. But their work cannot be captured so quickly with cameras.”