Migration crisis in Germany: Cologne no longer wants to announce new asylum homes

Citizens will not be informed at an early stage about asylum seekers' homes and junkie stations in their neighborhood for a very specific reason.

Cologne - The city of Cologne has announced that it will later inform citizens about the construction of new asylum accommodation. “We will not provide information about every item under review. We can only name the property at a more advanced stage and cannot respond to all of the usual objections to the construction of new accommodation," said Head of Social Affairs Harald Rau on Friday.

The city was reacting to supposedly negative experiences in the past. “We have found that if we announce very early on which accommodations for refugees are being examined, we trigger a dynamic that is not good for anyone.”

Up to 200 migrants reach Cologne every week
Most recently, a project on Neumarkt in downtown Cologne failed. The city wanted to build a drug consumption room there. The owner of the building also spoke out in favor of it. “Unfortunately, the debate then gained public momentum that led to the failure of the project,” Rau regretted.

From now on, political committees will not be involved in short-term use of accommodation, but will continue to be involved in longer-term planning. Rau justified the approach by saying, among other things, that “the need is currently so great that we have to create places where possible.” The city of Cologne currently has to accept and spontaneously accommodate up to 200 people per week, many of them from the Western Balkans.

Hardly any migrants in the Green district
Nevertheless, efforts are being made to distribute asylum seekers evenly throughout the city. “In reality, this is not always possible,” said the head of the social affairs department. Significantly fewer asylum seekers are accommodated in the Lindenthal district.

Lindenthal is located west of Cologne city center and has the lowest proportion of people with a migrant background and foreign citizens in the city. The district is also a stronghold of the Greens; the party has won every election with more than 30 percent since 2019.

Source: Junge Freiheit