Hamburg plans to construct more tents for asylum seekers, media reports reveal. Meanwhile, the Left party has criticized the poor conditions at many emergency and interim accommodations, pointing to issues like inadequate sanitation, mold, and prolonged stays averaging seven months.
More tents to serve as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers are to be constructed in Hamburg, the German newspaper Die Welt reported on Monday (November 18).
Over a dozen tents providing 140 emergency spaces are planned across three different locations across Hamburg (Curslacker Neuer Deich, Stapelfelder Straße 7, and Wetternstraße) by early next year. The additional temporary shelters will be in addition to existing tent accommodations in two other locations in Hamburg, namely Schnackenburgallee and Schlachthofstrasse.
Hamburg continues to grapple with a strained refugee accommodation system, with interim solutions like tents inadvertently becoming long-term residences for many. As reported in Die Welt, at Schlachthofstrasse, the average stay reached nearly seven months, with some exceeding 21 months, while at Schnackenburgallee, stays averaged over 13 months, with the longest recorded at 28 months.
In a statement, Left party member Carola Ensslen criticized the very poor conditions at many of the emergency and interim locations in Hamburg, citing poor sanitary conditions, mold problems, as well as the lack of opportunities to prepare food independently. She stated that the prolonged stays at these locations were detrimental to health and hindered integration.
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Straining to accommodate refugee arrivals
As of October, Hamburg’s accommodation system was running at 97.8 percent full capacity to handle. Citing German government data, the Asylum Database of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles reported 351,915 asylum applications filed last year.
Like many European cities, Hamburg faced a peak in refugee arrivals in 2015. Initially, most refugees came from war‑torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Eritrea. However, since last year, Hamburg has also seen an increase in the number of Turkish nationals applying for political asylum in Germany.
Germany’s refugee distribution system allocates asylum seekers across the country's 16 federal states based on tax revenue and population size. Hamburg's quota is determined annually, guiding how many refugees the city must accommodate.
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For an overview of the different stages of the asylum application process in Germany, please check this brochure.
To access more information about the asylum reception centers and German integration courses in Hamburg, please visit the local government website here.