The fact that three new pavilions are currently being built at the Gießen site of the Hessian initial reception facilities is a sign that more refugees are coming to Hesse again.

But more space is needed in Gießen not only in view of the increasing numbers: Due to the pandemic, the accommodations cannot be fully occupied for reasons of hygiene.

In addition, additional places will be kept free.

Because all newcomers have to go into a monitored entry quarantine for at least ten days - regardless of whether they have accepted the vaccination offer after the initial examination or not.

Only when there are no symptoms indicating a corona infection can the refugees be moved to regular accommodation.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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That is not something that can be taken for granted.

As the spokesman for the Giessen regional council reports, the virus broke out in the spring, which made further measures necessary.

In mid-April, two lightweight accommodations for a total of 288 residents were built in Gießen.

The new premises can accommodate as many people.

The youth hostels in Büdingen and Grävenwiesbach were already rented towards the end of last year.

Then additional facilities were added in Kassel and Lauterbach.

Another location was also opened in Darmstadt.

931 refugees in June

How long the accommodations are used depends on both the development of the pandemic and the number of visitors.

They still only make up a fraction of the recordings recorded at the height of immigration.

But the increase cannot be overlooked.

According to the Gießen regional council, 581 refugees arrived in Hesse in January of this year.

By June the number rose to 931. The main countries of origin are still Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey.

One reason for the increase in the number is what is known as secondary migration: many refugees who have already received asylum in Greece, for example, travel on to Germany in order to submit the same application here again.

Although this is against the applicable laws, repatriation is still hardly possible.

According to the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, for example, intra-European transfers were completely suspended for several months during the pandemic.

Even “collective charter”, in which people required to leave the country would be deported from several federal states, could not have been organized.

In addition, numerous countries of origin set extensive conditions for returns, which are usually justified by the pandemic.

These effects of the corona crisis are also noticeable in the other federal states.

In the case of Greece, there are also judgments from a number of German higher administrative courts.

They prohibit deportation to the EU country on the grounds that elementary basic needs such as “bed, bread and soap” cannot currently be satisfied there.

In Hesse, the number of repatriations was 1681 throughout 2019. A few months later, the virus broke out. According to the Interior Ministry, 818 people were deported from Hesse in 2020. The number for the first half of this year is 479 - it has increased again slightly compared to the same period of the previous year.