While the traffic light coalition initially relies on aid for Ukrainians in their own country, the municipalities are preparing for the rising number of refugees and are demanding support from the federal government.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) promised the government in Kyiv comprehensive winter aid. “Now it’s also about supporting Ukraine with all available means before the approaching winter,” Faeser told the Handelsblatt. “This also includes helping locally, for example with the construction of winter-proof accommodation.”
Faeser is reacting to the latest warnings from the Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal. If there was no electricity, heating or water in Ukraine, it could trigger a “migration tsunami”, Schmyhal told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. He accused Russia of wanting to plunge Ukraine into a humanitarian catastrophe. That is why his country needs mobile equipment to generate electricity and heat, as well as water treatment plants.
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The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) supports the Ukraine on behalf of the German government. However, with a view to the upcoming winter, the options are limited. As the Ministry of the Interior explained, “the market availability of special relief supplies such as oil heaters and electricity generators is currently severely restricted, so that timely support for Ukraine cannot be guaranteed consistently”.
Nevertheless, corresponding goods for the winter storage worth around 1.5 million euros have already been delivered. According to the ministry, further aid is planned, including sanitary and living containers, warehouses and tents and field kitchens.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had already described “acute winter aid” as the top priority at a German-Ukrainian economic forum in Berlin on Monday. Ukraine needs short-term help to get through the winter.
Municipalities are already preparing gymnasiums for refugees
The municipalities in Germany also see an urgent need for action, because many cities and communities can hardly take in refugees. The situation is “partly very tense” – not only because of the high number of people displaced by the war from Ukraine, but also with regard to refugees from other countries, said the general manager of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, the Handelsblatt.
More than a million war refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Germany so far, and there are also increasing numbers of migrants coming via the Balkan route. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 135,000 people applied for asylum from January to the end of September – 35 percent more than in the previous year.
The economic damage of the past attacks cannot yet be estimated.
(Photo: Reuters)
According to the municipalities and districts, there are problems with distribution and accommodation in particular. “In many places, hotel rooms have to be rented and gymnasiums or other facilities have to be prepared,” explained Landsberg, head of the Association of Cities.
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He also fears that the number of refugees could continue to rise in view of the infrastructure destroyed by the Russian war of aggression next winter. “We urgently need a show of strength from the federal, state and local governments to take the situation into account,” warned Landsberg.
The federal states should increase the places in their initial reception centers “quickly, significantly and sustainably,” warned Landsberg. The federal government is also required with its properties. “At the same time, we finally need a binding commitment from the federal and state governments that the costs incurred for 2023, but also the additional costs incurred for 2022, will be reimbursed to the municipalities,” said the head of the association of cities.
Interior Minister Faeser signaled further support from the federal government. “Precisely because the accommodation situation is so tense, I am in very close contact with the federal states and municipalities,” she said.
FDP demands European refugee summit
The FDP considers a binding regulation on the distribution of war refugees to be indispensable. “We have to assume that the already extremely tense refugee situation will worsen in the cold months,” said parliamentary group manager Stephan Thomae to the Handelsblatt. It is important “to quickly ensure the protection and care of the Ukrainian refugees with clear rules at national, but also at European level”.
Thomae called for a European refugee summit for all 27 member states. “The goal must be to finally achieve a common European asylum system with a legally binding distribution mechanism,” he said. “Because it is becoming clear that a voluntary distribution mechanism based on solidarity cannot be a long-term solution.”
The Greens refugee expert Julian Pahlke spoke out in favor of supporting the municipalities “as best as possible” in the current situation. “It is therefore right that the Prime Ministers’ Conference at the beginning of November will discuss the costs.”
The SPD member of the Bundestag Hakan Demir added: “Just like in other European countries, our reaction must remain: expand capacities and not move away from the right to asylum and our values of humanity.”
More: As many refugees as in 2015 – municipalities are demanding Europe-wide distribution