Since the outbreak of war five weeks ago, more than 30,000 people have come to Frankfurt from Ukraine.
Many continue to travel to other countries, some are gradually distributed to Hessian municipalities.
But thousands end up here because of their ties to the city's large Ukrainian community.
Monica Ganster
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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The city has now created a central contact point for those refugees who probably want to stay in Frankfurt in the Office for Multicultural Affairs (Amka) on Mainzer Landstrasse.
There, contact persons from the immigration authorities, the citizens' registration office and the social welfare office are all under one roof to make it as easy as possible for the Ukrainians to ask for help.
In the light-flooded reception room on the ground floor, experts, with the help of volunteer translators, answer the many questions of the newcomers: How do I get a sick note, a place in kindergarten, an initial pocket money to cover the most necessary expenses?
What to do with the pets, where can a chronically ill person quickly get the medication they need?
Between 400 and 500 people seeking advice every day
Yevhen Kozymka is one of the many volunteer interpreters who help out here.
For weeks now, the physics student from Darmstadt has been spending his semester break helping the newcomers.
He himself was born in the Ukraine and was naturalized in Germany ten years ago.
“It's a bit useful that I speak four languages: Ukrainian, German, Russian and English.
People feel safer when you can speak to them in their own language,” he observed.
Some are coming for the second time and are now asking when they can expect their application to be processed.
A whole year of trainees from the Human Resources and Organization Office was assigned to work through the pile of forms, says Jürgen Eckert, deputy head of department in the social welfare office.
Between 400 and 500 people come to Amka every day for advice.
In the past few weeks, there have sometimes been 600 who, at the time, streamed into the neighboring building of the social welfare office, where it quickly became too cramped and concern grew that the regular customers there could feel marginalized.
Four department heads worked together to enable the newcomers to register as efficiently as possible: Elke Voitl (social affairs), Annette Rinn (order), Eileen O'Sullivan (citizen service) and Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg (diversity).
The “landlady” of the Amka, Eskandari-Grünberg, also draws attention to those people seeking help who came to Frankfurt before the Ukrainians did: “We all agree that there should never be a second class of refugees.
Not feasible via app on the smartphone
Unlike asylum seekers, Ukrainians do not have a residence requirement in Germany, they can move freely within the Schengen area.
This makes it harder for authorities to track who is where.
But in order to ensure fair distribution among the Hessian communities, the Ukrainian refugees must first be registered.
Frankfurt has received allocations from the state in recent weeks, although the city in Hesse had accommodated most of the Ukrainians.
A new system called “Free”, which the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees wants to activate this week, will soon help with the collection.
It is to be used in immigration authorities and control the distribution of Ukrainians to the countries.
The easy system for asylum seekers is unsuitable for the special situation of Ukrainians.
So far, Frankfurt has offered protection to around 5,500 Ukrainian refugees, says Elke Voitl, Head of the Social Affairs Department.
More than 3,200 of these have already been registered with the youth and social welfare office and their applications for benefits have been approved or are being processed.