Special train with hundreds of refugees from Ukraine reaches Munich on Saturday evening: Reiter is thinking about a tent city
Created: 03/13/2022, 06:58
By: Klaus-Maria Mehr
Hundreds of refugees reach Munich Central Station on Saturday evening.
Caritas is on site along with other aid organizations.
© NEWS5 / Deyerler
Around 430 refugees from the Ukraine war arrived in Munich on a special train on Saturday evening.
Apparently, the city itself does not yet know exactly where they will all be housed.
Munich – After a good 18-hour journey in a special train, hundreds of refugees from Ukraine arrived in Munich around 6 p.m. on Saturday evening.
At least half of them are children, says Milena Antol, a spokeswoman for the private rail company RailAdventure, which organized the trip.
She estimates the number of refugees to be around 700, a police spokesman initially spoke of around 430 people after arrival on Saturday.
“We are a smaller company with 70 employees.
It's quite a challenge to do something like that.
It was very clear to us that we wanted to do this,” says Antol.
The company is actually specialized in test and transfer drives.
Special train with hundreds of refugees from Ukraine reaches Munich
The original plan was therefore to pick up refugees directly at the Polish-Ukrainian border.
However, they did not quite get to the border, but instead took in Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw and Poznań.
"It was impressive how many helpers were there," said the RailAdventure spokeswoman.
In Poznań, many people would have made bread and made tea in the middle of the night at double-digit minus temperatures.
About 80 refugees had already got off at stopovers in Braunschweig and Würzburg, said the spokeswoman.
The Munich railway company had chartered couchette cars from the Netherlands for the special trip.
The refugees are welcomed in the train station hall in Munich.
© NEWS5 / Deyerler
Now the city of Munich also has to accommodate the refugees.
The challenge is gigantic.
The organization demands a lot from the city.
In the past few days there have been some chaotic scenes at the main station.
The town hall is supported by volunteers who are also on site at the main train station on Saturday evening and offer housing.
But officials are cautious here.
"We don't offer housing here.
We refer the people who come here with housing offers to the central offices," says Bettina Bäumlisberger from Caritas Munich.
There have already been numerous dubious housing offers.
6500 refugees already in Munich - the city is looking for pragmatic solutions
Caritas helpers show the arriving refugees the way.
© NEWS5 / Deyerler
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Meanwhile, pragmatic solutions are being sought to accommodate thousands of Ukrainian refugees in the city.
Around 6,500 refugees had arrived by Friday, Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) said on Friday.
"Yes, we are also considering building a kind of tent city," he said.
But he prefers that refugees can be accommodated in halls.
"In the worst case, there won't be any trade fairs in the near future."
Ukraine war: Munich fire brigade in action - organization around the clock
The fire department of the Munich fire brigade set up a planning team on Friday.
The aim is to provide at least 2000 additional beds in acute care centers by Sunday evening.
With an incredible number of helping hands, the target could already be exceeded on Friday evening.
The volunteer fire brigade Munich is always on duty with several hundred helpers.
Together with the professional fire brigade and the THW, they looked through the available care facilities, transported the several thousand beds, set them up and, if necessary, tents and provided support with care.
Around 2,500 seats were already available on Friday evening.
The planning continues, so that the target will be exceeded by far on Sunday evening.
Demos against Putin and war also on Saturday in Munich - around 1500 participants
Numerous people took to the streets in Munich on Saturday against the war in Ukraine.
A police spokesman said a good 1,500 people came to the demonstration on Königsplatz.
It is really overwhelming and nice to see how people who were brought to Munich from Ukraine just a few days ago now wanted nothing more than to help other people from Ukraine in Munich, said Munich City Councilor Felix Sproll the Volt party, which had registered the rally.
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