The municipal shelters are correspondingly well occupied. Refugees from Ukraine are still not assigned to municipalities by the state. They can freely travel throughout Germany as part of freedom of movement, explains Hoffmann. As of 5 October, according to the city, a total of 4678 refugees from Ukraine had registered in Bonn since the beginning of the war on 24 February, 726 of whom have since moved away again. There are currently 2237 refugees in municipal accommodation.

In total, 3597 refugees from 50 countries are accommodated in Bonn. By way of comparison, during the refugee crisis of 2015/2016, at peak times, the city of Bonn had to accommodate and look after up to 4,300 people from 40 countries.

Many refugees, especially those from Ukraine, have found accommodation with private individuals. "There are now 575 people privately accommodated with the help of the city administration. The willingness of the people of Bonn to accommodate and help the refugees from Ukraine continues to be strong. And we appreciate this very much," Hoffmann emphasises. Nevertheless, it must be expected that other accommodation possibilities will have to be created for people who are currently being housed privately.

There are 107 refugees in the emergency accommodation on Siegburger Straße in Beuel and 75 people in the emergency accommodation on Gerhart-Hauptmann-Straße in Dransdorf.

In the meantime, another container facility at the corner of Reuterpark and Hausdorffstraße has been demolished. The building permit had expired there, and the park is now being redesigned as an inclusive sport, play and recreation area, which had been planned for a long time. The permit fot the container accommodation in Beuel, on the other hand, runs until 2027. The reason for this is that there is a development plan that allows housing, so the city did not have to claim special rights of use for refugee accommodation. At that time, the city of Bonn had invested around 16.4 million euros in the container buildings so that several gymnasiums, which had to be converted into accommodation in 2015 at the height of the wave of refugees, could once again be made available for school and club sports.

And what is the forecast for the coming months? "At this point in time, the city administration assumes that gymnasiums will not have to be made available again for the time being. However, we will have to wait and see how things develop in the coming months. The municipality is trying to find further collective accommodation as well as flats and is in talks with various stakeholders," says the press office.

There are currently still 438 people being accommodated in hotels. At peak times, there were about 1200 refugees in 21 hotels, according to Hoffmann. Many of them had to move to collective accommodation in September. The city's goal is to reduce the use of hotels, mainly for cost reasons. Will this succeed in view of the rising number of people seeking refuge?

The city's goal is still to expand the capacities of municipal accommodation in order to reduce hotel occupancy. "The city administration does not rule out the possibility of having to resort to hotels. Another large influx of refugees is likely in autumn and winter," the vice city spokesperson answers. After all, the city of Bonn has had to pay 8.2 million euros for hotel accommodation since the start of the influx of refugees from Ukraine in March, which corresponds to about 1.26 million euros per month.

When asked whether Russian citizens have already sought refuge in Bonn, Hoffmann replies by referring to the fact that the city has already exceeded its reception quota: "So far, only two people from Russia have come to the city's initial reception centre, and they were referred to the state reception centre in Bochum." (Original text: Lisa Inhoffen / Translation: Jean Lennox)