The municipalities are demanding a long-term strategy for taking in refugees in Germany from the federal and state governments. The chief executive of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, criticized the results of yesterday’s deliberations of the prime ministers in the “Rheinische Post”.
The heads of government of the countries had not worked out enough that migration policy needed a long-term strategy, “at least for the next ten years,” said Landsberg.
“Even if the Ukraine war comes to an end, there will always be refugee movements, for example due to climate change, for which we have to prepare ourselves with more and larger initial reception facilities at federal and state level,” he demanded.
“Significantly expand reception capacities”
The German Association of Cities also called on the federal states to create more possibilities for accommodating refugees. “We cannot conjure up any further municipal areas and buildings for accommodation,” said President Markus Lewe of the editorial network Germany (RND). “The federal states must therefore significantly expand their reception capacities and also maintain them permanently.”
The prime ministers’ conference yesterday did not make any clear statements on this. But the federal government should also build up its own accommodation capacities for initial admission, according to Lewes, in order to relieve the burden on states and municipalities in the event of high numbers of people entering the country.
In a joint resolution on Thursday, the heads of the federal states called for support from the federal government that “significantly” exceeded the funds already promised because of the increasing number of refugees. What is needed is a financing model that adapts to the changing numbers of refugees. A federal-state summit with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on refugee costs is planned for May 10th.
