Invasion of Europe news…
German officials are looking at replicating the facility in Bavaria throughout the country so that asylum seekers are pretty much contained in one fenced facility while they wait for a decision about whether they will be deported or not.
From Deutsche Welle:
In Bavaria, one model “reception center” is home to more than 1,300 asylum-seekers. Directors say the barbed-wire enclosure and lack of privacy are for “safety” and efficiency. One resident says “it’s a wasted life.”
Is this what the future of asylum management will look like in Germany?
On the outskirts of the romantic UNESCO World Heritage city of Bamberg in Bavaria, one passes through an unforgiving security checkpoint manned by tough guards to enter into a facility lined with barbed wire. This was once a US army base, complete with cinema, supermarket and disco.
Since July 2016 the long, light-colored barracks have served as refugee housing. The streets are named after types of trees. During my visit in December, a thin man in a track suit stood at a roundabout and waved: “I tell you the truth!” he yelled to me. There are guards everywhere. Welcome to the Upper Franconia Reception Center.
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The way the government sees things, the Upper Franconia Reception Center provides refugees with everything they need. They can even receive text notifications about the status of their asylum applications, which they submit at the facility, on their cellphones.
[….]
The Federal Administrative Court has an office here, as does the region’s immigration agency. The welfare agency is in Block E. This is all “state of the art” in Krug’s eyes: “If the government decides to put refugees into centralized accommodations, then our facility is definitely a good model.”
Controversial proposal by interior minister
Deutsche Welle continues….
That is exactly the plan advocated by Horst Seehofer, the interior minister in the new federal government and a member of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU). He has presented plans to open “anchor centers” to house asylum applicants from their arrival in Germany until their requests are granted or they are deported.
And the first one may well be built in Bavaria. The centers that Seehofer proposes are intended to provide efficiency, as well as maximum control over the people who come to Germany hoping to find more sustainable living conditions.
Seehofer has for years presented a hard line on immigration and frequently come into conflict with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
[….]
Whether the Bamberg model will be replicated elsewhere remains to be seen.
There is much more and definitely worth reading.
If the German government put out word throughout Africa and the Middle East that all migrants flooding in to Germany would be housed in large facilities it would surely act as a deterrent to many others trying to get to ‘welcoming’ Europe.
And, hey, couldn’t the US run more detention centers—a kind of one stop shop until asylum decisions are made. Expensive? Probably, but better than just releasing so many to their supposed relatives and expecting them to show up for their asylum court date.
My ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive is here. And, I’ve written a great deal about dear Deutschland, here.