There have been riots in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a protest against plans for asylum accommodation.
According to the police, up to 700 people on Thursday night (January 26) gathered in front of the local municipality to demonstrate against the accommodation of refugees and migrants in Upahl, a small commune of 1,700 inhabitants in northern Germany.
According to the regional NDR public broadcaster, there were hundreds of right-wing extremists and hooligans among the protesters.
Some of the protesters reportedly tried to gain access to the building, which was prevented by police officers. The police said that in this process they were subjected to verbal abuse.
About 200 police officers were deployed in the end to manage the rally outside the building; preliminary proceedings for serious trespassing offences and violations of the Assembly Act have meanwhile been launched in isolated cases.
The demonstration was, however, registered to take place — in line with German laws governing the right of assembly.
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Container accommodation
The district council nevertheless approved the construction of container accommodation to house up to 400 people registered locally for the asylum process.
According to information from the district of Nordwestmecklenburg, the creation of temporary container accommodation for asylum seekers in an industrial park has been a contentious local issue since the idea first was floated.
Among other objections, locals say they believe the facility is too big for the local community to manage.
Read more: Asylum applications in Germany on the rise in 2022
No alternatives
District Administrator Tino Schomann said he understood the "concerns of local residents, and can only assure them that we will do everything we can to minimize the burden on them."
He added that the main objective of the facility was to prevent refugees and migrants from having to be housed in gymnasiums.
Schomann also shared that the first containers would be delivered on March 1, adding that a local downhill meeting on February 3 would be scheduled to answer all remaining questions.
"The fact remains, however, that this is a temporary stopgap solution," Schomann said, adding that he and the district council had wished there had been better alternatives.
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with AFP, NDR