The signal was clear: the Berlin authorities cannot handle the exceptional situation alone. At the end of last year, the acting head of the State Office for Refugee Affairs (LAF), Carina Harms, invited to a joint press conference with various aid organizations and Berlin initiatives that help with the care of refugees. The help ranges from medical care and support in school matters to language courses.
The jointly scheduled appointment was an unusual step that had never existed before. “We need the city society,” said Harms. You won’t make it alone.
The exceptional situation that led to the appointment is likely to continue in 2023 and pose major challenges to Berlin politics. The authorities expect the number of refugees from Ukraine and asylum seekers from other regions to remain high.
The accommodation is only one aspect – but probably the most urgent. The SPD, the Greens and the Left would like Berlin to be a “safe haven” and decentralized housing for refugees, but are failing in the reality of the tense Berlin housing market.
Social Senator Katja Kipping (left) therefore wants to change the residence requirement for refugees so that it is easier to move from the city to a non-city area like Brandenburg. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior reacted only hesitantly to this initiative.
The CDU wants a development on the outskirts of Tempelhofer Feld
The FDP Berlin demands that the model of the Königsteiner key, with which the refugees are distributed to the federal states, be suspended for this area and replaced by a new calculation method. In addition, a “180-degree change in construction policy” is needed, emergency shelters are currently unavoidable, but must be reduced “to an absolute minimum”.
The CDU also sees the solution to the problem primarily in the construction of new apartments – and therefore wants a development on the outskirts of Tempelhofer Feld instead of building container settlements there. The CDU is also committed to “consistent deportation of rejected asylum seekers”.
The AfD calls for a comprehensive change of course in asylum policy and would like to convert the State Office for Refugee Affairs into a “State Office for Repatriation” and limit asylum procedures.
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