As the only Hessian district, Bergstraße has not distributed refugees to the municipalities, but has taken care of their accommodation itself.

But now the resources are becoming so scarce that from the spring onwards the municipalities will also have to take in people.

The district had already used a special method during the wave of refugees in 2015/16.

Instead of distributing the stream of refugees to the municipalities, he had built a large tent camp in Bensheim, among other places, which served as the first place for the refugees to stay.

This tent camp has now been reactivated and can accommodate up to 1000 people.

Another, smaller tent camp for 300 people is being set up in Groß-Rohrheim.

But even these admission options quickly reach their limits in view of the more than 60 refugee assignments per week.

The solution would be more tent camps, but this requires suitable areas.

As early as the end of 2022, the district wrote to all municipalities and asked them to name appropriate areas - but there were no offers.

Since the district will soon no longer be able to accept refugees under these conditions, they will be distributed to the municipalities according to a key from spring onwards.

The mayors have been informed, reported district administrator Christian Engelhardt (CDU) and full-time deputy Matthias Schimpf (The Greens).

Demand for faster designation of building areas

The district administrator takes the higher-level politicians to task.

It cannot be that almost half of the refugees have almost no right to stay because they are people without a recognized reason to flee.

The largest number of these refugees currently come from Turkey.

Because they could hardly live there with inflation of almost 80 percent, they would immigrate to the German social security system.

This is devastating for counties and municipalities.

Not only are these refugees taking up space for people fleeing war and persecution.

They would also overstrain the human resources for refugee care and cost a lot of money.

In the Bergstraße district, Schimpf identified around 500 refugees who would most likely not be given the right to stay.

District Administrator Engelhardt is therefore calling on the federal and state governments to quickly deport such people.

Above all, Hesse should finally keep its promise to only assign refugees to the districts who have a foreseeable right to stay.

The staff cannot be increased indefinitely, especially since there are currently hardly any interested parties for numerous vacancies.

Personnel and money are so tied up by the refugees staying in Germany without authorization that there is hardly any capacity left for integration work.

Schimpf and Engelhardt demand the possibility of being able to designate new building areas more quickly.

In the Rhein-Main metropolitan area, living space is scarce anyway.

That is why refugees with the right to stay have to live in tent accommodation for months because there are no apartments available.

Distribution in the EU should be fairer

In 2022, around 4,000 people were assigned to the Bergstrasse district, including 2,800 Ukrainians who are recorded separately because of their special status.

For these people it is also quite easy to find housing.

1232 people came from other states.

While the number of refugees from Ukraine is currently falling, the number of refugees from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan is increasing significantly.

Mostly young men up to the age of 30.

In order to get the problem of refugees without a foreseeable right to asylum under control, the district administrator is calling for the incentives to be reviewed.

"Many refugees only come because of the money." But the distribution of refugees must also be fairer in the EU.

Germany should not continue to be the country that takes in the most refugees.

With a look at the costs, Schimpf made it clear what financial efforts were necessary.

Around 800,000 euros per month would have to be spent on the tent city in Bensheim alone.

After all, Hesse will largely cover all costs for this year.

"The situation is becoming more critical from week to week," the district administrator warned of quick action at the higher levels.

The situation is more precarious than in 2015, when only 1,000 refugees were assigned to the district.

There is one thing the district does not want to do: "We will not use any public halls to accommodate refugees," says the district administrator.

After the corona pandemic, when many people could no longer meet for sports and leisure, that was the wrong way, especially since a maximum of 200 people could be accommodated in a gym and the preparation of a hall for the reception of refugees costs up to 400,000 euros .