Initial Attention Shifts to Halberstadt and Stendal upon Arrival - Investigation Spotlights Halberstadt and Stendal in Initial Examination
In a strategic move to optimize the distribution of asylum seekers and refugees across Germany, Saxony-Anhalt has chosen to concentrate its efforts on the cities of Halberstadt and Stendal. This decision aligns with the availability of sufficient housing and infrastructure capacities in these locations, as part of a broader approach to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees nationwide.
Last year, six external branches of the Central Contact Point for Asylum Seekers in Halberstadt were closed, including Bernburg, Blankenburg, Merseburg, Oberharz am Brocken, an additional facility in Halberstadt, and Quedlinburg. The branch in Quedlinburg was closed a few weeks ago. The primary future intake of refugees in Saxony-Anhalt will now be at Halberstadt and Stendal.
The Stendal center, upon reaching full operation, will join the primary location of Halberstadt and the secondary location of Stendal for long-term focus. The goal is to focus on these two locations in the long term, a strategy that likely aligns with the availability of accommodation facilities and strategic planning by migration authorities to utilize existing capacities effectively.
The Migration Authority's decision to focus on Halberstadt and Stendal is part of a wider distribution of asylum seekers across German federal states. Saxony-Anhalt, including cities like Halberstadt and Stendal, is among the states with a significant capacity for hosting refugees. The state has a total accommodation capacity for asylum seekers and people with tolerated stay (Duldung) of approximately 13,015 places across various types of housing, including collective shelters, decentralized apartments, and emergency shelters.
The Stendal center is expected to start full operation with 1,000 places by the end of 2024. The Interior Minister, Tamara Zieschang (CDU), stated that several decentralized external centers for refugee intake are uneconomical. The current utilization rate of the refugee intake capacity is around 85 percent.
It is worth noting that the decreasing admission numbers mean that the distribution of asylum seekers to municipalities will be delayed. The focus on Halberstadt and Stendal aims to optimize the use of this capacity while maintaining standards of housing and integration support.
This approach fits the broader policy context where some states prefer collective accommodation, and others emphasize decentralized housing. The strategy of focusing intake in Halberstadt and Stendal presumably aims to balance the distribution of asylum seekers nationwide and utilizes available collective accommodation facilities in Saxony-Anhalt.
[1] This section is a summary of information obtained from various sources and does not contain specific detailed figures on the exact capacity and current utilization rates for Halberstadt and Stendal alone.
The migration authorities' focus on Halberstadt and Stendal, as part of a wider distribution of asylum seekers across Germany, aligns with the employment policy of optimizing the use of existing capacities in these locations. This strategy is expected to balance the distribution of asylum seekers nationwide and is supported by the community policy of designating certain cities as primary and secondary locations for long-term focus. The decision to concentrate efforts on Halberstadt and Stendal is also linked to the politics of allocation, as Saxony-Anhalt, like other states, aims to accommodate asylum seekers and refugees in a General-News context of optimizing distribution across federal states.
