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The accommodation and care of refugees causes financial difficulties for municipalities and states.
The hopes of getting more support from the federal government at the refugee summit in Berlin were correspondingly high.
The consultations dragged on and the press conference that followed had to be postponed.
In the end, the countries received no commitment for further aid.
Some could hardly hide their disappointment.
Reinhard Sager (CDU) President of the German District Association
»You shouldn't take the length of the meeting to mean that we produced excellent results for four hours.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
In Germany we urgently need relief for those who bear municipal responsibility.
The pressure is significant and increasing day by day, week by week.«
She wasn't really specific, but Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser promised relief for the coming months.
It is said that today's summit meeting was more about agreeing on work structures.
Nancy Faeser, Federal Minister of the Interior
»In 2022 alone, the federal government provided the federal states and local authorities with financial support of 3.5 billion, for this year we have agreed 2.75 billion.
We will act and find pragmatic solutions to solve the tense accommodation situation in many places.«
The shifting mood in some regions was last clearly felt at the beginning of February in the north-west Mecklenburg village of Upahl.
There, the district council discussed a planned container village for 400 refugees.
The project met with great protest among the residents of the small community.
Resident of Upahl
“Then of course the fears came up.
500 young men in a village with no infrastructure.
What are they going to do there?”
Residents of Upahl
»Yes, I'll say it might have been a possibility if we had been spoken to beforehand.
It has already been set up in Grevesmühlen, in Wismar, in Lübeck, it's being set up everywhere.
But we have a whole village there.
And that's the worrying thing about it."
The pressure is not only felt in the municipalities.
Aid and human rights organizations also demanded more money for the accommodation of refugees in the run-up to the refugee summit.
Karl Kopp, Pro Asyl
»We took in a million refugees from Ukraine.
Last year another 200,000 came from other war and crisis areas.
Almost all – over 90 percent – are entitled to a protected status.
And now we have to see that they find accommodation.«
Meanwhile, the number of asylum seekers, for example from Turkey, Syria or Afghanistan, is increasing.
But the majority of the refugees, more than a million people in 2022 alone, still come from Ukraine.
Around Easter there should be further consultations with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
It is questionable whether the municipalities want to wait until then – or can.
