A total of 217,774 people came to Germany in 2022 to seek protection. This is the result of the figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf).
Schleswig-Holstein’s SPD parliamentary group leader, Thomas Losse-Müller, has already sounded the alarm: “We simply don’t have any more free living space in the country.” That is the difference to the situation in 2015 and 2016, when many people also fled to Germany.
A BILD survey revealed: Many federal states are already reaching their limits!
countries sound the alarm
▶︎ Die Berlin Senate Department for Integration is concerned: The State Office for Refugee Affairs has “31,476 places in regular accommodation. Of these, 474 places are currently free” – for the entire metropolis.
However, because the need is “much greater than the free places”, many refugees even have to be housed in emergency shelters, such as the former Tempelhof and Tegel airports.
▶︎ Also Bayern is already at the limit: The Bavarian ANKER centers (re: “Arrival, municipal distribution, decision-making and repatriation”) are overflowing – they are currently almost 103 percent full (as of January 9). The accommodations of the follow-up accommodation are just behind and 94.5 percent occupied.
▶︎ Rhineland-Palatinate: Of the total of 7450 places, 6157 are currently occupied, which corresponds to an occupancy rate of 83 percent. Therefore, new branch offices had to be created, such as in Bitburg, Bernkastel-Kues and at Hahn Airport.
︎ Only recently was the capacity of the state reception authority in Lower Saxony tripled to 15,000 places – but two-thirds of the places are already occupied again. However, Lower Saxony’s Ministry of the Interior explains that it still has “a good buffer”, but that the housing market is “basically very tight in Lower Saxony, too.”
▶︎ The Ministry of Integration Brandenburg explains when asked by BILD: “For the year 2022, the admission target was exceeded by 108 percent and is reflected in the tense accommodation situation.”
▶︎ “The admissions situation in the state of Saxony-Anhalt is tense overall. This applies to both the state itself and the municipalities,” explains the Ministry of the Interior Saxony-Anhalt.
Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (52, CDU) says to BILD: “In return, the state and local authorities can expect the federal government to do everything in its power to noticeably curb illegal migration via the Balkan route and also illegal secondary migration.”
▶︎ In the shared accommodation Mecklenburg-West Pomerania more than 83 percent of the total of 6,412 places were occupied (as of November 2022).
There are around 9,950 places in apartments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for Ukrainian war refugees – only 200 of these places are still available.
▶︎ A little more space is still in Schleswig-Holstein: Out of 7,000 places available by the end of January, 4,500 are occupied. However, around 30,000 people came to Schleswig-Holstein from the Ukraine last year. There are also around 8,000 asylum seekers.
▶︎ In Saxony Of the 7,811 places in the reception facilities, 5,256 are currently occupied – this corresponds to an occupancy rate of 67 percent. However, the Saxon State Directorate points out that in practice it is never possible to fill all the places in a reception facility. Because: to avoid conflicts, families and women are accommodated separately from men traveling alone. Means: The realistic occupancy rate is higher.
▶︎ Hesse has already greatly expanded the capacities for the initial reception in 2021. The result: Currently there is an occupancy of only 58 percent. The initial reception places are intended to relieve the municipalities: This gives the municipalities a lead time before the refugees and migrants arrive with them.
▶︎ The state initial reception facilities are in North Rhine-Westphalia 79 percent occupied, the central accommodation facilities (including emergency shelters) 81 percent.
Cities and municipalities are also sounding the alarm
According to their central associations, cities and municipalities in Germany are increasingly having problems finding adequate accommodation for refugees, warns the general manager of the association of cities and municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, in the “Handelsblatt”.
“Many towns and communities have long since reached the limits of their capacity to accommodate refugees and displaced persons,” said Landsberg. Some hotel rooms would be rented and emergency accommodation set up in gymnasiums, but also in free-standing buildings in commercial areas. “This can no longer be expanded at will.” The topic must finally be declared a “top priority” in the federal government.
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 (Bamf), almost 218,000 people made such a request for protection in Germany for the first time. That was almost 47 percent more than in the previous year. The approximately one million war refugees from Ukraine who were admitted to Germany last year did not have to apply for asylum. You receive immediate temporary protection on the basis of an EU directive.