Essen (dpa / lnw) - The City Association of North Rhine-Westphalia has in principle welcomed the cost commitment for the accommodation of refugees in the federal-state agreement. "I don't want to be ungrateful or criticize things now," said association chairman Thomas Kufen (CDU) on Thursday in "Morgenecho" on WDR 5 - with a view to the planned additional 1.5 billion euros that the federal government for the current year wants to provide.
You stand before a joint effort. Everything that is spent must "be earned and paid back at some point". Kufen also raised concerns: "Citizens have the impression that billions are now being thrown around and before there was no money for the renovation of a school toilet."
The mayor of Essen complained, however, that the federal-state group had left out the topic of integration. Around 7,000 refugees from Ukraine are registered in his city alone. Only because around two-thirds of them have found private accommodation is it currently still possible. But the "red warning light" is already on. The number of refugees will continue to increase. In view of the Russian attacks on civilian targets, a humanitarian catastrophe is looming in Ukrainian cities in winter.
The municipalities wanted to take care of these people. "We have to stand together." After the accommodation comes the integration - and there is nothing about that in the federal-state paper. Here the distribution of funding is still open. The evening before, the federal states had agreed with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on the financing of relief measures, including the cost commitment for refugees.
