Berlin to build 16 aid centers for Ukraine refugees
Berlin is planning to build 16 refugee centers to accommodate more than 6,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The government will add 1,000 places in the former Tegel airport soon, the city's mayor Kai Wegner says.
What is the problem?
Germany is the country where Ukrainian refugees seek protection the most. Due to a housing shortage, many regions have stopped accepting new wanderers. Yet, some states continue to accept Ukrainians.
Germany has accepted about 1 million home seekers from Ukraine since the start of full-scale aggression.
What is the solution?
Berlin will now increase its capacity to accommodate Ukrainians with 16 new aid centers. The Senate adopted the relevant decision on March 26.
The refugee center on the territory of the former airport in Tegel is planned to be expanded by 1000 places.
How does it work?
The smallest facility is designed for 150 beds, the largest for 620. These will be multi-storey buildings that will be used as dormitories and single rooms; three-storey buildings with apartments are also planned. The so-called housing container program 2.0 is urgently needed to provide accommodation for refugees in the coming years.
The planned 16 locations will not be the last projects.
According to the Social Welfare Office, there are currently about 12,000 emergency accommodation centers in Berlin. The authorities want to close them in the medium term.
On February 28, Lithuania decided to allocate an additional €326,000 to support refugees from Ukraine, which will be transferred through the various ministries.
Luxembourg has extended temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees until March 4, 2025, so the IDPs will have this status for another year.
As of the end of October 2023, 4.24 million refugees from Ukraine have been granted temporary protection within the bloc.
Almost half of Ukrainian refugees are women (46.4%), one third are children, and one fifth are adult men (20.2%).
