Status: 03/16/2022 2:41 p.m
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Thousands of war refugees from Ukraine arrive in Berlin every day. Emergency shelters are set up, for example at the former Tegel Airport. But the city is at its breaking point.
By Jacqueline Piwon, rbb
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“Do you know which cities accept families and where there are still places?” Marielle Tierney asks an assistant at the Welcome Center in Berlin Central Station. The answer: “No, we don’t know that either.” Tierney is disappointed. She wears a helper vest herself. For two weeks she has been standing at the main train station every day, welcoming refugees at the platform and helping where she can.
A family has been living in their neighborhood for a few days, but this is only temporary. “I really want to help this family,” says Tierney. “They don’t know how to proceed. But nobody here has the answers.”
Marielle Tierney helps refugees at Berlin Central Station. Often the volunteers don’t know what to do either.
Image: Jacqueline Piwon
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Accommodation is not a permanent solution
Every minute people arrive at the welcome hall in the main station. The local volunteers cannot help with all questions. Inside the Welcome Center, the Ivshchenko family is waiting – with their dog, children and grandparents. “Berlin is full. There are no vacancies,” they report.
“I think we’re going to the west of Germany,” says the grandfather. “It’s war at home, children are dying.” He is close to tears, but the family must look ahead. “They say we can only stay here for a night or two. Then they’ll take us to another city.”
The Ivshchenko family hopes to find long-term housing soon.
Image: rbb evening show
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Big cities are the first port of call
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 175,000 war refugees have entered the country so far. The number is likely to be significantly higher. According to the Senate, 10,000 people arrive in Berlin alone every day. Thousands of refugees also arrive in other major cities such as Hamburg, Munich and Hanover every day.
Berlin and other federal states are therefore demanding a fairer distribution according to the so-called Königstein key. However, this is not yet official practice. So far, the big cities have been dependent on other federal states voluntarily reporting capacities. Only then will the refugees be sent to the respective region by bus.
Berlin is about to be overwhelmed
In order to get the situation under control, new emergency shelters are being built in Berlin almost every day. 500 emergency beds in the closed Tegel Airport were fully occupied within one day. “Berlin is about to be overwhelmed,” said the governing mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, at the weekend. The situation overtakes you.
The Senate must act and is trying to set up structures in a hurry. Because at some point people will not only need accommodation, but also social care, for example with daycare places, medical offers and jobs.
The infrastructure for registering and distributing the refugees is therefore to be built in Tegel in the coming days. The former airport is to be expanded to accommodate up to 7,500 people, and a tent and container city on the former runway is to ease the tense situation at the main station.
The plan is to regulate the further distribution of refugees to other federal states in 24-hour operation from there from next weekend. More than 400 employees at over 100 registration counters will then distribute the refugees according to the Königsteiner key in the Tegel arrival center.
Other states should support more
“The few resources we have in Berlin are quickly used up, while hardly any Ukrainian refugees have arrived in other regions of Germany,” explains Sascha Langenbach from the State Office for Refugee Affairs.
Berlin urgently needs this support. Because the mass accommodation for the refugees is not a permanent solution, and the capital expects a further increase in the number of refugees. “We hear from Poland that the load limit has been reached there,” says Senator for Social Affairs Katja Kipping. “That means you have to expect a sharp increase every day.”
The primary goal is therefore to promote the distribution of people to the other federal states. But so far, significantly more people are arriving in Berlin than are being distributed.
Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser on refugees in the Bundestag
Philipp Eckstein, ARD Berlin, 16.3.2022 · 18:04
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