After a refugee summit by the state and local authorities, representatives of the central municipal organizations have shown themselves to be dissatisfied with the results. “I’m a little disappointed with today’s summit,” said the President of the Thuringian Association of Municipalities and Cities, Michael Brychcy, on Thursday after the deliberations. “We addressed a number of things. These things are far from being solved,” Brychcy made clear. The consultations focused primarily on questions of financing the accommodation of refugees.
The districts and urban districts are “water up to their necks,” said the President of the Thuringian District Association, Martina Schweinsburg. According to the constitution, the country must assume all costs, she emphasized.
Thuringia’s Minister of the Interior Georg Maier (SPD) announced a draft law according to which the municipalities should be reimbursed as much as possible for the citizen money that Ukrainian refugees receive. “I’m personally confident that we’ll come very close to 100 percent here,” said Maier. It is to be expected that money will also be made available by the federal government, which will then be passed on to the municipalities.
Minister of Education Helmut Holter (left) announced an emergency program in the education sector in view of the high number of immigrant children and young people in schools. “The schools are full in places,” said Holter. Where a particularly large number of immigrant pupils have been admitted, they are to be separated from the class groups and taught in intensive language courses.
“We need additional rooms for this, and we also need additional staff for this,” said Holter. Among other things, they want to win over adult education teachers and adult education teachers. If the students are fit in the German language, they should take part in normal classes again.
Holter said that there are currently 28,435 students at Thuringian schools. 5,246 of them came to Thuringia from the Ukraine.
