"We get enquiries almost every day, but have no more places," says Sonja Boddenberg, manager of the Pauline von Mallinckrodt children's home in Siegburg. The youth welfare offices of Siegburg, Sankt Augustin, Niederkassel as well as the Rhein-Sieg district regularly asked her.

In 2016, when the number of refugees was high, the children's home created its own group with eight places for unaccompanied minor refugees. After about four years, however, this was closed due to declining demand. "Now the crisis is flaring up again on a massive scale, but we are full to bursting," Boddenberg said.

At least the children's home was able to make room for four Ukrainian children and their foster mother - in the building where the refugee residential group used to be housed. The house had actually already been vacated and prepared for demolition, as the children's home had planned a new building for the coming year. But it would be difficult to rebuild the group for refugees not only because of the space issue, the home director explains. A huge problem, she says, is the shortage of skilled workers. "We are already making great efforts to ensure that our existing services are well equipped," says Boddenberg. In principle, she would be happy to set up a group again, but this would require joint efforts with the youth welfare offices and the state.

The city of Siegburg also points out that many youth welfare facilities have reduced the number of places in view of the lower demand in recent years, but cannot immediately create them again because of the shortage of skilled workers. "The search for suitable facilities is becoming increasingly difficult due to the high number of refugees and is presenting the municipalities with major problems," says press spokesperson Jan Gerull.

Siegburg is currently responsible for twelve unaccompanied minor foreigners. They are all male and come from Afghanistan, Morocco, Syria, Guinea and Albania. According to Gerull, young refugees often use the ICE route from Frankfurt to Cologne, are found on the train without a ticket and are met by the federal police at Siegburg station. The youth welfare office then takes care of the young people. One group of three refugees picked up on the train has also slept on the sofa in the children's home, Boddenberg said.

Meanwhile, the district youth welfare office is increasingly looking for host families to accommodate young refugees. Currently, 36 young people between the ages of nine and 18 have been assigned to the office, which is responsible for the municipalities of Alfter, Swisttal, Neunkirchen-Seelscheid, Much, Ruppichteroth, Eitorf, Windeck and Wachtberg, according to district spokesperson Bettina Heinrichs-Müller. "But there are still some coming in all the time," she says. Five refugees come from Ukraine, a large proportion from Afghanistan. So far, there are "a few host parents" who took in refugees in 2016 and have now taken in young people again.

Otherwise, the search is proving difficult. At the end of October, the district invited people to an information evening, but no one came, Heinrichs-Müller said. And it is not only the district that is looking for host families in the region. The non-profit organisation "Mutabor - Mensch & Entwicklung" from Eitorf has also just launched an appeal due to the "enormously increasing demand for care places", as they say.

The city of Bornheim currently has 13 young refugees between the ages of 15 and 21 in its care: six from Ukraine, two each from Afghanistan and Somalia, and one each from Nigeria, Guinea and Albania. Also 13 unaccompanied refugees between the ages of 15 and 17 are currently assigned to Königswinter. Their countries of origin are Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Albania. Meckenheim is responsible for ten male underage refugees, four from Ukraine, six from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran. "So far, as a small youth welfare office, we have been able to accommodate all the young people in Bonn and the district. However, large cities complain about considerable accommodation difficulties," says Meckenheim's press officer Marion Lübbehüsen.

The city of Hennef is responsible for four young Afghan refugees, two from Morocco and one each from Somalia and Syria. In addition, as reported, several young footballers from Ukraine were accommodated at the Hennef sports school from March onwards. However, this was only intended as a "temporary solution", says Stephanie May from the Youth Welfare Office. From mid-December, the sports school wants to use the premises for other purposes again. Therefore, she is very happy that it was possible to find new accommodation for all of the remaining 22 Ukrainian youths.

Ten of the 16- to 17-year-olds are now living in youth welfare institutions, four of them in the St. Ansgar facility in Hennef. Six of the young athletes are staying with host families who were found through contacts with football clubs in the region. Six more will stay at the sports school until the end of the month, but solutions are already in place for them as well. "We really had a lot of trouble finding free places," says the youth welfare office worker, confirming her colleagues' concern: "There is hardly any capacity because of the shortage of skilled workers." And this does not only apply to refugee children.

(Original text: Antje Jagodzinski; Translation: Mareike Graepel)