In a referendum, the people in the town of Fürstenau near Osnabrück decided to set up a refugee reception center in the country. The issue was whether the city should allow the state of Lower Saxony to set up an initial reception facility for refugees on the site of a former barracks. The question was: “Do you reject the city of Fürstenau from renting/leasing the former Pommern barracks to the Lower Saxony state reception authority?” 44.8 percent of voters voted yes and 55.2 percent voted no, as a city spokeswoman said on Sunday evening. This makes it possible to lease the site to the state and set up a state reception facility for refugees on the site.
The city wants to acquire around 40 hectares of a former military site. The state of Lower Saxony would like to set up an initial reception center for up to 500 refugees on ten hectares and lease the site from the city. For this, they should receive around one million euros per year from the state.
The initial reception center is to be temporarily expanded into its own location with the associated social facilities. After the contract period, the site should be available to the city again. The contract term is five years, with the possibility of an extension for a further five years.
The state wants to invest a total of four to six million euros in the infrastructure on the former barracks site. According to the city, around 200 jobs will be created to operate the state reception authority.
Critics of this plan also wanted the city to acquire the barracks site. However, the entire 40 hectares should be used as a commercial area. This would offer greater development potential for the entire region than if part of it was used as an initial reception facility, it was said. With an initial reception facility, actual, sustainable integration of refugees is not possible because they only spend a short time on the site and are then distributed to other municipalities.
According to the city spokeswoman, the result is still the preliminary final result. The city’s Board of Elections is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon for confirmation.
Information about the referendum Result of the referendum
