Berlin’s main refugee centre in the city’s former Tegel airport – considered Germany’s largest – will likely have to expand beyond its current 7,000-person capacity, city mayor Kai Wegner said on Wednesday.
“I already think that 7,000 is far too many,” Wegner told foreign correspondents in Berlin. “But I cannot rule out that it will become more still,” he added.
He said the city had agreed to set up additional refugee accommodation, but this would likely not be in place until 2025 or the year after.
Wegner said it was up to experts to put a number on the amount of additional beds needed, but added: “The probability that the numbers there rise further, rather than decreasing, is very, very big. This is simply a situation that is unsatisfactory for me.”
Germany’s 16 federal states and many local municipalities complain of insufficient support from the centre-left government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help provide basic services for refugees.
The issue will be back on the table at a meeting of state premiers at the weekend, almost a year after the government promised to take steps.
Municipalities were facing increasing funding difficulties, Wegner said, while adding that general acceptance among the population was declining, in an apparent reference to far-right gains in recent state elections.
“This is why I simply expect the federal government to act on this,” added Wegner, whose conservatives are in opposition at the national level.
“When I say, we have reached breaking point in some areas, I would now go so far as to say we are overwhelmed. And that’s not just the case in Berlin,” the mayor noted.
