Refugee housing shortage makes Berlin turn old airport into a shelter

The German capital is increasing a short lived refugee shelter at its former airport, Tegel, to accommodate 3,600 Ukrainians.

Berlin has been struggling to host civilians who’ve just lately fled Russian assaults on important infrastructure forward of the upcoming chilly winter months.

Whereas two former terminals at Tegel Airport have been already opened for Ukrainian refugees within the spring, Berlin’s state authorities is now racing to outfit two huge tents on the tarmac with heaters forward of the winter. 

It has additionally opened a 3rd terminal for registration of additional arrivals and put up 900 new beds, officers stated Wednesday.

“With Russian President Putin focusing on the nation’s warmth and water infrastructure and the temperatures taking place beneath zero quickly, the numbers of refugees can skyrocket at any time,” Katja Kipping, the Berlin state authorities’s senator for social points, stated.

“We should be ready,” Kipping stated as she toured newly opened registration amenities at terminal C, including that the majority common refugee and asylum shelters in Berlin and elsewhere within the nation have been already overcrowded.

Discovering new area for extra individuals in search of safety in Germany wanted to turn out to be a prime precedence, she added.

Housing can’t be constructed shortly sufficient regardless of new federal funds

Tegel, often known as Otto Lilienthal after the German aviation pioneer, was the German capital’s predominant airport since 1948.

The opening of the Berlin Brandenburg Aiport in October 2020 noticed a gradual switch of operations to the brand new hub resulting in Tegel’s authorized decommissioning in 2021.

Notable for its hexagonal design, Tegel — thought of to be one of many metropolis’s landmarks — was imagined to be was a brand new neighbourhood branded as City Tech Republic. 

However then, the conflict began in Ukraine.

Germany has taken in 1 million refugees from Ukraine since Russia attacked its western neighbour nearly 9 months in the past. 

As well as, extra asylum seekers than in earlier years are coming right here from international locations resembling Syria and Afghanistan. 

Elsewhere in Europe, the variety of individuals making use of for worldwide safety has additionally reached highs not seen since effectively over 1 million individuals sought refuge on the continent, inflicting what was seen as a serious disaster seven years in the past.

Final week, the top of the German affiliation of cities warned that many locations across the nation are not capable of present respectable housing for refugees.

“We must begin counting on emergency options, as a result of the common housing that will truly be offered for this function will not be accessible in amount and high quality,” Straubing mayor Markus Pannermayr stated on Bayern 2 radio.

The federal authorities tried to allay native communities’ issues final week, saying it’s keen to supply €4.25 billion for this and subsequent yr to assist maintain refugees and migrants. 

However even with new federal funds, new housing models can’t be constructed as shortly as individuals maintain arriving, metropolis officers say.

Variety of asylum seekers additionally on the rise

At Tegel airport, some 1,500 Ukrainian refugees have at present discovered a short lived dwelling — most of them moms with their kids — because the German capital’s common refugee properties with nearly 28,000 beds are full. 

On Wednesday, a few of those that had simply arrived have been sitting within the huge arrival corridor, having been helped with scorching vegetable soup, whereas others sat shut collectively on outdated metallic seats close to the partitions charging their telephones on a number of sockets.

A household of 5 with a child in a stroller and the daddy utilizing a wheelchair was lining up within the outdated boarding cross and safety management space to get registered. 

On the similar time, a number of aged Ukrainians have been standing in entrance of the previous airline gates to undergo police checks and have their fingerprints and biometric photos taken.

Berlin has welcomed greater than 100,000 Ukrainians to this point, and whereas many have discovered non-public lodging with kin or Germans who’ve opened their properties to them, some 3,000 at present depend on town for lodging.

Ukrainians can enter Germany with out visas, however migrants from different international locations in search of refuge in Germany want to use for asylum to get into shelters.

From January by way of the top of September, 134,908 individuals utilized for asylum in Germany, with about 10,700 of them now dwelling in Berlin.

In October alone, 3,454 individuals utilized for asylum within the German capital, which was a rise of 30% in comparison with September, metropolis officers stated.

To verify all of them — in addition to these anticipated to return — have a roof over their heads within the winter, Berlin needs to create 10,000 additional lodging areas till the top of this yr.

“We have now a Herculean process to sort out right here,” Kipping stated.