Container village for refugees: Fu Berlin fights against accommodation

Container village for refugees: Fu Berlin fights against accommodation

The planned container village for 260 refugees on the fallow unibles on Thielallee 63 in Berlin-Dahlem causes heated discussions. The Free University (FU) expresses strong resistance to the plans of the Senate, since it actually intended the site for the construction of teaching and research institutions. The President of the FU, Günter Ziegler, complains that the university management has not been integrated into the decisions and feels over. The university has already shown its willingness in the past to support refugee people by providing temporary emergency accommodation.

The FU argues that it will need the affected property from 2023 for its own construction work and that no alternative areas are available. The university proposes to use empty buildings of the Federal Real Estate Agency nearby as an alternative. The special representative for refugee issues at the Senate, Albrecht Broemme, emphasizes the urgency of the accommodation of refugees and considers the container village on the universe area to be a suitable solution. Nevertheless, further clarifications are required, including possible concerns about nature conservation.

At the end of March, the Senate decided to build 16 other container villages in Berlin in order to counteract the tense living situation for refugees. These villages are particularly planned in the eastern part of the city, which leads to a further unequal distribution of the refugees. The controversial discussion about refugee accommodation is also reflected in the online mockery about the FU, which is normally considered to be cosmopolitan. Critics accuse the university of not living their values ​​when it comes to accommodation of refugees.