At the initial reception centre for asylum seekers in Eisenberg in southeastern Germany, ten tents have been set up. Each is supposed to house between ten and 20 people.
Across Germany, more and more asylum seekers are being housed in emergency housing, including tents, containers, and gymnasiums. That’s because the country has seen a large number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers from countries like Afghanistan and Syria arrive recently.
However, a recent study shows that a large number of communities across Germany still accommodate refugees and asylum seekers solely in regular reception facilities.
An online survey conducted by researchers from the University of Hildesheim and Media Services Integration got answers from officials of more than 600 municipalities and counties.
They found that 55% of respondents did not use emergency housing. The most used type of emergency housing is containers (about 35% of communities who responded use them). 6% use gyms to house people, and only just over 1% use tents.
When asked about how the municipalities viewed the refugee accommodation situation in their community, roughly 58% said that it was “challenging, (still) manageable”.
About 40% said they were “overstretched, in emergency mode”. Only slightly more than 1% said the situation was “easy, no problems”.
It’s important to note that the numbers from the study cannot be seen as fully representative of the situation across Germany. That’s because officials from some regions responded at higher rates than officials from other regions.
