Asylum accommodation centers in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are increasingly underused

Many communal accommodation centers for asylum seekers and refugees in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are only partly occupied as asylum numbers in Germany decline. In Ludwigslust-Parchim, 785 of 1,571 places were occupied in May, an occupancy rate of 50 percent.

The rate stood at 52.7 percent in Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, 55.5 percent in Rostock district, 57.4 percent in Vorpommern-Rügen and 57.7 percent in Schwerin. Rostock reported 63.2 percent occupancy across nearly 2,000 places. The figures reached 68.2 percent in Vorpommern-Greifswald and 72.1 percent in Nordwestmecklenburg.

Authorities consider a communal accommodation center fully occupied at 75 percent. The state government said 25 percent of capacity generally cannot be used because residents differ in family circumstances, ethnicity, culture and religion.

Across Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, municipalities maintained just over 12,400 places, of which about 7,250 were occupied in May, equal to roughly 58.5 percent. The state government said it could not make reliable forecasts of future migration or precisely identify future accommodation needs, leaving municipalities to balance preparedness with cost efficiency.

Germany recorded 39,646 first-time asylum applications in the first half of the year, according to information from the Interior Ministry. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees received 61,336 such applications in the first half of the previous year and about 121,000 in the first half of 2024.

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It is therefore not possible for the state government to specify precisely the accommodation needs that will actually be required in the future.