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refugees in Ukraine. Aargau can no longer cope with the onslaught.
The canton of Aargau can no longer cope with the refugee situation in normal operation – there is simply a lack of accommodation. That is why Aargau feels compelled to declare an emergency.
This gives the canton new options for finding places for refugees. The focus is on the use of municipal underground protective structures such as first-aid posts. According to the emergency ordinance passed by the government council, municipalities can be obliged to provide such facilities for the accommodation of refugees. The first three plants are put into operation in Aarau, Birmenstorf and Lenzburg; this means that a total of 560 additional accommodation places can be created.
In an emergency it will be confiscated
Should these capacities be exhausted at some point, in an extreme emergency municipalities and private owners could be obliged by confiscation order to also make other suitable properties available.
However, the government council will deal with this possibility with caution and with due regard for proportionality. The emergency ordinance also enables civil defense to be called up to provide support with care in the accommodations.
20 new Ukrainians every day
The background to the emergency regulation is the current situation in the asylum and refugee system. Last year, more than 90,000 people fled to Switzerland, including more than 70,000 Ukrainians. These are transferred to the cantons after a certain period of time.
According to the forecasts of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), a total of around 20 people seeking protection from Ukraine and other people from the asylum sector can be expected to be assigned in the coming weeks – for Aargau alone, and that per day.
Other accommodations are rented
The canton of Aargau has already created around 1,000 additional places in cantonal accommodation in recent months. According to the government council, the currently 650 reserve places in municipal and cantonal accommodation and the available places with host families in the canton will last until the end of February 2023. Measures are therefore needed to quickly create additional capacities.
The cantonal social service will rent more accommodation in the coming months, for example apartment buildings, former hotels and vacant nursing homes. Since the start of the Ukraine war, the communities have also been trying to create more accommodation and put suitable residential properties into operation in order to fulfill their admission obligations. Furthermore, there is a high level of solidarity among the population with the refugees from Ukraine, which is shown by the high number of private accommodations: 43 percent of Ukrainians live with private individuals.
Lucerne has been in a state of emergency since November
Aargau is not the only canton with this problem. The Lucerne government council had already declared the emergency for the entire asylum and refugee area of the canton of Lucerne in November 2022. Social director Guido Graf described the problem in Blick: “We currently have around 6,400 refugees in the canton of Lucerne, 65 percent more than in the previous year.” However, he only has a vacancy rate of 1 percent and a cantonal unemployment rate of 1.3 percent.
“That means: I have an additional village, but no apartments and can’t find any caretakers for the people. As a result, we are preparing civil defense systems in Dagmersellen, Willisau and Lucerne in the event of an emergency.” (sf)