Over the weekend, around 100 people protested against the construction of a container accommodation facility for 250 migrants and refugees in northeast Germany. It is one of several public protests against plans to build migrant shelters this year.
Some 100 people took part in a demonstration against a shared accommodation facility for people seeking protection on Saturday (July 29) in the small village of Upahl in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania.
Protesters reportedly gathered on the edge of the village and held signs saying 'Stop taking in refugees', 'We miss democracy' and 'Upahl wasn't asked.'
Unlike previous protests in Upahl and elsewhere in the state, Saturday's gathering remained peaceful, the dpa news agency reported citing a police spokeswoman.
In January, up to 700 people rioted in front of the local municipality building, among them reportedly hundreds of right-wing extremists and hooligans. About 200 police officers were reportedly deployed to manage the rally. Another protest against the shelter in Upahl took place in March.
And in February, a protest with about 500 people in the city of Greifswald against the construction of an accommodation center for migrants and refugees included about 20 participants from Germany's far-right scene, according to police.
Protests against the facility in Upahl, a project of the county, started erupting at the beginning of last year already, dpa reported. In mid-July 2022, the authority responsible for supervising construction had given the green light for the building, which is to be set up in a business park on the edge of the village.
The container facility is to house a maximum of 250 people, down from the 400 it was initially designed to accommodate. According to tagesschau.de, Upahl neither has a supermarket nor any doctors or good transportation links to surrounding towns and cities.
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Housing 250 refugees 'unreasonable', municipality says
Saturday's protest came on the heels of foundation work that had recommenced on Tuesday (July 25) following the issuance of the building permit by the administrative court of the city of Schwerin on July 13. The first containers are to be placed at the site in August.
"The accommodation of 250 refugees -- even if only for one year -- in a location without infrastructure, in a large commercial and industrial site in the immediate vicinity of the highway is unreasonable and also contradicts our planning intentions," the municipality of Upahl said in an online statement published last Wednesday.
On Friday, the administrative court had for now rejected a request by the municipality of Upahl to halt the construction until a decision about the protest against the facility has been made, dpa reported.
According to the court, the state ministry responsible for construction and the administrative district are to comment on the matter by August 10. However, a decision by the court isn't expected before mid-August, according to dpa.
Villages, towns and cities across Germany have been struggling to accommodate a large number of migrants and refugees that have been arriving irregularly on top of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians since the beginning of last year.
The protests have been coinciding with the soaring popularity of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has a strong anti-immigration agenda. In a survey from May, one in two Germans said they were frightened of refugees coming to Germany.
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with dpa