Berlin sparks SOS! The capital has hardly any room for new refugees
Berlin sparks SOS! The capital has hardly any room for new refugees
Berlin faces major challenges in refugee accommodation. The capital has hardly any room for new refugees and there are no accommodation options. Social Senator Cansel Kiziltepe would therefore like to ask other federal states to accept more refugees than prescribed.
Berlin already took up 16,000 refugees in the first half of the year. The number of asylum seekers increased by more than 50 percent compared to the same period last year. In addition, 8,502 war refugees came from Ukraine. Another 10,000 to 12,000 refugees are expected by the end of the year. Since there are no more free rooms, many of them have to be temporarily accommodated in tent -like halls.
The CDU faction raises the alarm and warns of the need for major accommodation. The current refugee accommodation is already 98.5 percent. Accommodation in sports halls in winter should be avoided.
The social senator suggests changing the distribution mechanism for refugees. It calls for a special rule for city -states such as Berlin because they only have a limited area for new refugee accommodation. She has already held talks with Hamburg and Bremen, but both federal states have rejected.
Saxony's interior minister and the CDU parliamentary group emphasize that the Königstein key, which regulates the distribution of asylum seekers, works and should not be changed. They believe that those who are overloaded should put pressure on the federal government.
The AfD calls for strict border controls, fast asylum procedures and consistent deportations of rejected asylum seekers. The Green Refugee expert suggests that the federal government loosens or abolish the residence. The left-wing parliamentary group leader points out that the necessary infrastructure such as schools, public transport and medical care are often missing in the country.
The social senator receives support from her SPD party colleague, which supports an adaptation of the Königstein key for city-states.
The Königstein key is used to determine the distribution of refugees to the federal states. It is based on the tax revenue and the population. It is currently 5.2 percent in Berlin, which led to 14,667 asylum applications last year. In the case of war refugees from Ukraine, the distribution is similar.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) only provides exceptions to this distribution key if refugee accommodation is temporarily uninhabitable. Otherwise, the authority fundamentally rejects deviations.