The number of people fleeing war or expulsion to Germany has been rising sharply for months.

The cities, the districts and the Hessian initial reception facilities (HEAE), which are all desperately looking for ways to accommodate people appropriately, feel this.

Monica Ganster

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The districts most affected, Wetterau and the Main-Kinzig district, have recently questioned whether the distribution system in Hesse deals fairly with all municipalities.

The city of Frankfurt, to which apparently fewer refugees are distributed, is preferred, according to Hanau.

In the Main metropolis, one cannot really understand this assessment and refers to the special circumstances since March, when the first refugees from Ukraine arrived.

At that time, accommodation in Frankfurt was quickly and unbureaucratically created for thousands of people seeking protection - without considering any quota, according to the social department.

Initial reception capacities almost exhausted

Since the start of the war in Ukraine at the end of February, tens of thousands have come to Hesse, many of whom had contacts with families and acquaintances in Germany or found shelter with private helpers.

Since March, Frankfurt in particular has been an easily accessible destination for refugees from Kharkiv, Odessa or Kyiv. Today, extensive municipal and private aid structures have been set up, and there is a Ukrainian community that can help with the first steps.

Large temporary shelters therefore had to be set up at Messe Frankfurt in order to be able to accommodate the large number of people before they could be placed in hotels, apartments or smaller collective accommodations.

Ukrainians who are not directly accommodated privately or in municipal facilities are referred to the Hessian initial reception facilities (HEAE).

All asylum seekers from other countries that the federal government has assigned to Hessen are also accepted there.

The HEAE are the responsibility of the state of Hesse, up to 8000 places are currently available there, spread over 11 locations.

At the end of October, however, 7,596 beds were already occupied, and around 1,000 people arrive at the central initial reception facility in Giessen every week.

For comparison: in the autumn of the previous year there were 400 to 500 weekly. However, it is not only Ukrainians who are fleeing the bombardment in their homeland, but since July above all those seeking protection from Afghanistan (32.7 percent), Syria (18.0 percent) and Turkey (16.6 percent),

A few weeks ago, the state informed the cities and municipalities in writing that they had to take in more refugees than before.

Ultimately, there is no way around this directive for the regional authorities, they now have to solve the problem of supplying and accommodating thousands of people at community level.

And that as quickly as possible and while the cost issue is still being negotiated in Berlin.

Recently, Frankfurt has actually not received any more refugees from the state.

The reason for this is that the city has already exceeded its admission quota, according to the responsible Ministry of Social Affairs.

Exceeding the admission quota in Frankfurt

According to a ministry statement, the state reception law and the ordinance on the distribution of refugees ensure “a fair distribution and an equal burden on all local authorities” in Hesse.

The number of inhabitants is taken into account, but also the proportion of foreigners in a municipality and whether there is a branch of the state initial reception facility there.

According to the accounts from Wiesbaden, Frankfurt took in 2,372 more refugees than this distribution key allows for.

"Any over- or under-quota that may exist is regularly compensated for in the following quarters," says Wiesbaden.

The Main metropolis has currently accommodated around 5500 refugees.

In Frankfurt, the social department also points out that the city, like Giessen, takes care of a disproportionately large number of unaccompanied minor refugees, which is very costly and personnel-intensive, since the children and young people are particularly vulnerable and need to be accommodated separately and adequately cared for.

The city has campaigned nationwide to also take in unaccompanied minors, but without success.

Municipal costs are not covered

The criticism of the politicians in the Main-Kinzig district, which they formulated in a fire letter, focuses primarily on the details of the ordinance on the distribution of refugees, which has been in force since 2009.

In it, all districts and cities with more than 400,000 inhabitants have a quota of 8.5 percent of all those seeking protection, although the Main-Kinzig district has only about half as many inhabitants as Frankfurt.

The circle found that a more precise differentiation was required here.

The validity of the said regulation ends this year.

It could then theoretically be revised.

When asked, however, Wiesbaden said that it was planned to extend it in its current form.

However, the Hessian municipalities and districts clearly agree on one assessment: the flat-rate reimbursements made by the state for the refugees did not cover the actual costs by a long shot.